Unholy Saviors
by X0ll0X
Summary: Harry Dresden gets swept up by the World Transformation and finds himself stuck on Midland getting more actively abused as a human stress ball than normal. There will be suffering, there will be burning, there will be explosion and THEN he'll meet Guts. Spoilers up to and including Skin Games and the entirety Berserk.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer. I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. Basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.**

**While waiting for the edits of chapter 5 I decided it would be a good time to rewrite chapter 1 to more or less bring it up to standards (whatever those are in this case).**

**I still recommend the Metal Gear Rising OST and for something more Berserk related I do the same for Battle Beast.**

**The Heir of the Void has edited from chapter 2 onward. I'll reupload this chapter when he finds the time to give it his treatment.**

**The state and grammar and general readability should be better than before though.**

**All that said and done, please enjoy the following madness.**

I lay on my back looking up and I was treated with the sight of the smoking hot woman who was cradling me. The warm light of the forest fire we were in the epicenter of highlighted every curve, every contour, and every detail of her almost naked body. From the full, perky breast to the writhing, fleshy dreadlocks or the patches of smoldering skin being ignored. My hand found my trusty revolver and a bullet obliterated the puzzled look on her face while the back of her head exploded in gore.

The corpse started to fall backwards and for once I didn't have to worry about collateral damage.

"_Fuego!_" I roared, incinerating as much of her body as possible, launching the rest in the mysterious inferno surrounding me. The distance between me and said inferno had widened as I had pulled residual heat from my immediate proximity to help me fuel that knee-jerk spell.

I had to deal with it somewhere in the near future, kind off inconsiderate of people to set fire to forest and disappointing Smokey Bear. For now though, I was content lying there and trying file away the sights of the grove that had previously occupied the spot of cleansing fire.

_Hell's bells, I have to spend some quality time with Maggie to get that out of my system._

"Harry! I somehow expected that following the trail of destruction would lead to you." Chimed the pixie hovering mere inches over my face and disregarding physics by doing so horizontally without really doing much with his wings.

I immediately sat up with a manly grunt. It wasn't a startled squeak at all, don't listen to the mischievous wee-folk.

"Why is it that if there is a fire, I'm always the prime suspect?" I muttered, Toot-Toot merrily laughing in admiration of my masculinity. "But you are a sight for sore eyes, Major-General Toot-Toot Minimus. But returning to more pressing matters at hand; why are you here and where's 'here' exactly?"

I saw Toot think for a while making a striking figure with the light dancing off his custom made silver and composite carbon armor. He measured 20 inches tall nowadays, all strong, lean musculature. The customized box cutter and his silver sword adding to the image of a fierce warrior prince. Even with the tuft of purple hair coming out from under his helmet and the surprisingly graceful dragonfly wings growing out of his back, nobody would have blinked an eye if you'd told him he was a direct descendant from king Leonidas or some equally impressive figure.

Especially if you considered his growing list of achievements against enemies way outside his weight class.

"Well I was coming back from the Nevernever after I went hunting with Lacuna." He began, making me wonder what exactly they were hunting and wondering whether or not I wanted to know. "We wanted to go back separately, I didn't want to be publicly associated with a leek-eater and she was saying something about clogged arteries and contagious stupidity. Anyways as I was close enough to my pizza rations to smell it, I was suddenly yanked in to the outer edges of the Nevernever and then I followed the trail of fire to find you!"

"So we're still in the Nevernever?" I asked, the spatial gymnastics that lead to my displacement left me a bit disorientated. "Either I've just met trolls with extremely good logistics or there is something more going on here. Also this is the first time the amulet isn't giving me any information."

Which was a scary thought. I had gotten the amulet, or more specifically the gemstone set in the pentagram from my mother Margaret Lefay. She had spent enough time in the Nevernever, much more than many normal wizards combined, to map out a large portion of it and getting to the point where she could predict shortcuts and where danger lurked on the other side. She had stored all that knowledge into the gem before my birth, before she was killed.

And now it wasn't giving me any information.

"Technically speaking we haven't left." Toot-Toot replied, probably using the multidimensional navigation system that came standard with the Wee Folk. "That said, it doesn't really feel right."

I however didn't come with a dimension-dar so I had to rely on experimentation for my primitive mind to understand.

"Stand back, I'm going to try to open a portal and I have no idea what might happen." I recommended the head of my personal army.

"_Aparturum._" I said, clawing my hand down with the intention of ripping open the very fabric of reality.

The good news was that we weren't bathed in boiling acid, we weren't crushed by endless amounts of water rushing out and nothing tried to rip my face off.

The bad news was that nothing else happened either. No tear in the air showing alien landscapes and giving reality the finger. Of course the normal version of the spell had safe guards to prevent me going in to deep into the Nevernever and ending in hell in one form or the other. A precaution I had taken after literally invading Hades for a burglary not too long ago. It was the first time it failed me entirely though.

I saw Toot-Toot look at me shaking his head in pity. "Could you give me your theory to explain this malfunction, Toot? For the sake of convenience, assume I know nothing."

"Very well, Jon." The major-general started, pulling a large flipchart from behind his back. Somehow. "It appears that earth, or something similar enough, has fused with the nearest layers of the Nevernever."

My head was already hurting from the events that lead to this and the explanation wasn't helping that. I was busy trying to keep track of where Toot was pulling the robe, the cane and various teacher paraphilia from on top of keeping attention to the flipcharts. Which in turn were showing an earthy ball falling through a sticky layer of something, being coated with it and hanging to the layer by a small tube. Then other, different colored layer came, fusing partially with the first one, building tube like structure and then it devolved into six or seven dimensioned madness.

"This means that I would advise against opening random portals around the place. As it stands it would open a door to heaven or hell." He looked pensive for a short moment, a slender, elegant finger tapping his chin. "Strike the heaven part in my last statement. I get the feeling that it would almost certainly be one afterlife dimension of eternal and unimaginable torment."

Stars and stones, I was getting a foreboding sense of dread at that point. It started to sound like I'd be stuck here for a while. Speaking of which.

"So if I understand you correctly we're stranded one something that may or may not is earth as we know it, after some kind of literal world changing event and it's very likely we're stuck. Meh, I've had worse."

As soon as I had uttered that last sentence a cold shudder ran along my back and I could feel the air somehow tense up. I had to keep my running mouth in check.

"I haven't been able to detect any pizza in a hundred or so miles around us, so either we somehow travelled back in time." I shuddered once more, this time because of having possibly broken the sixth law. "Or we're on some parallel earth."

"So we only have to find that connecting bit between this earth and the regular Nevernever on foot."

Toot-Toot looked like he wanted to object, knowing him it would be to remind me that he'd just fly.

Now that my adrenaline levels had returned to normal, I was reminded of something I noticed before the fight. The air was charged with latent magical energy. Previously I thought that I had been transported to another part of the Nevernever but even though latent, the magic was somehow livelier than over there. It somehow seemed positively playful, which might be a point towards bizzaro-world instead of time travel and chance on decapitation.

I stood up and prepared myself to face this unexpected roadblock between me and my recovering social life in Chicago.

"So let's get going then. The quicker we're back the less punitive stories I have to read to Maggie and the sooner you're able to do something about that massive case of dandruff you developed over here." I suggested to the Pixie, who was now examining himself in wide-eyed wonder.

"Let's do that. I can't wait to rub in the fact that I'm now producing fairy dust to Lacuna." The pixie answered with mischievous glee.

They might have their differences, especially dietary ones, but his denial was starting to get painful. Lacuna and Toot had grown close since we capture the female pixie blood knight during an attempt to assassinate me with iron needles. They sparred, they quarreled and apparently they terrorized the Nevernever together. And still they didn't want to be seen exiting a dimension together.

It was times like these that I sympathized with Thomas over my actions.

Before doing anything however, we had to get out of the fire. I locked onto the conglomeration of magic I was heading towards before the incident of the ex-grove happened. I gauged the distance the fire would have spread with my considerable and accidental experience and formed my spell.

"_Perimo!_" I declared, the spell ripping the energy and heat out of the fire in 20 feet wide highway towards and beyond the edge of the forest fire and storing it in the vast reservoir of the Spear of Destiny that adorned my staff. Or spear now, as it was a competent poking tool.

Reaching out to the reservoir in the Longinus I formed a second spell that would keep me from getting smoker lungs. "I'd stay close to me if I were you, Toot. _Ventas externa!_"

A gentle wind came down on me, providing me and Toot with fresh, cool air before flowing away from us. I had it centered on the Spear, letting it feed off its reserves to keep it going and allowing the spell to be mobile.

Having turned one of the most holy and magical artifacts into a makeshift air conditioners I made my way towards the accumulation of magical energy. It wouldn't be too far, considering the size and intensity of it.

I should have known better.

**OoOoO**

I had to make a choice. Do what's right and suffer the consequences or do the smart thing and simply let it happen.

It would mean the end of our bard. The evidence was stacked against her they had produced a laundry list of charges, including thievery, arson, treason and jaywalking. She had done all of those things except the last one.

She, however, had not given up. With skills honed by years of writing reports, she defended herself, coming up with cover stories for everything her judge, our game master threw at her.

The fire burning in the hearth my living room illuminated the rest of the players and managed to give Injun Joe a menacing aura. I knew it wasn't going well and I realized they were doing too much of what my barbarian couldn't stand.

"ENOUGH TALKING!" I boomed, startling the occupants of the big table.

"I take the sword of the guard and throw it at judge Turpin." I continued in an indoor voice, eliciting groans all around me.

I succeeded with the first part of my 'plan' but missed miserably. "Oops." Was all I had to say to as chaos ensued, a sheepish smile plastered on my face.

Maggie, sitting on my lap fell into a giggling fit at that.

Murphy gave me the evil eye, apparently not appreciating my attempt at saving her and I started to fear the machinations she would come up with together with Maggie while I was out on patrol later that evening.

"Guards, seize them!" Injun Joe declared and as GM began elaborating on their actions. Somewhere in between I could have sworn I could hear him muttering. "And he still wonders why the white council mistrusts him."

He was ordered by the Merlin to keep an eye out on me when Rashid and I announced my return as the Winter Knight. He tag-teamed with Ebenazar and sometime Rashid. At least he finally knew that I behaved much better when I actually liked the persons watching me. The reason of this precaution had probably something to do with me being the Winter Knight and thus difficult for the Merlin to control. Even more so than before. Somehow. Also if something went wrong they'd probably need something of Senior Council level to stop me.

"I cast fireball" announced Georgia, the situation devolving ever more. It failed spectacularly, annihilating a supporting column.

We were able to recruit him for our roleplaying sessions while training under him in the arts of shape shifting. Tera West had put in a good word and it allowed him to fresh up his knowledge on psychology with Georgia.

I decided to join them as a bonding exercise. The end result was that the Alphas in Chicago were able to wear fitting clothes once more and I was able to become the big bad wolf.

My almost seven foot frame, clad with rippling muscles that came with my Winter assisted training regime translated in a more than three foot tall, 5 foot long entity of black fur, fangs and claws. It would do just fine with dealing with mortal enemies in a non-mortal fashion.

I had been able to push the iron from my revolver and the Spear of destiny into my fur when transforming, isolating it from my Wintery side. It accumulated in pattern similar to the runes of my duster if I was wearing it, making me look rather snazzy. Also those runes were still active in this form. Moving hadn't been a problem, after all the counts of caninefication and the Mantle's natural affinity to this form.

We would probably leave for our patrol sooner than expected as Andi, our ranger, was down to throwing knifes and the Hellhound she had somehow be able to charm. Butters, our paladin, had taken a wound and was slowly bleeding out.

Waldo Butters had grown since he became the Batman Jedi Knight of the Cross. Muscles had grown on his wiry frame from the training under the Michael. The Sparring he did with the Einherjaren certainly contributed as well.

Karrin, Butters and I had gone to the BFS building after he had learned the basics in sword fighting. He had to make good on his promise to the Soldiers of Valhalla of joining them in the ring after obtaining a lightsaber. I used the time between admiring the tenacity of the small medical examiner facing against outhouses made of flesh to learn the finer points of smashing and poking things with a pointed stick under the strict tutelage of karrin.

Said knowledge was tested in the ring as well. Besides the experience it gave me I could help to temper Winter with, it also provided Winter and outlet to vent. Butters quickly rose to questionable stardom through his underdog victories against century old warriors whereas in my case it was the sheer ferocity of my attacks.

The lay on hand spell of Bill the cleric had used on me had apparently misfired in such a spectacular fashion that Listens-to-Wind deemed it appropriate to make my barbarian's armor disintegrate.

And thus began the epic of the stark naked barbarian fighting the elite guards. It was enough to make even our walking shaggy carpet to 'haroomph' in amusement. For the rest of the crew it was possibly even funnier as they knew I had done free fighting more than once myself.

Thomas would have probably laughed the hardest if he was here instead of scheming, backstabbing and whatever else the White Court did.

The idea of letting Winter vent was his suggestion and I had actually listened to him. I know, I was also waiting on the end of the world but at least the sky hadn't come down just yet.

The combination of sparring with the Einherjar and the nightly patrols had proven to be enough to keep the Mantle from affecting me too much.

Karrin had managed to buff our group to the point we were getting the upper hand all the while she 'found' valuable items on guards she had convinced to not attack her.

It didn't matter in the end.

"That last attack took out the remaining pillar. Rocks fall, everyone dies." Injun Joe solemnly announced before cracking a grin. "But do invite me for the next session if you will."

"What happened?" Toot-Toot asked having just come in through an open window and surveying the mess of cards, sheets and furious scribbles on them. "Wait let me guess. It has been another case of 'enough talking', hasn't it?"

The laughter, was enough to answer that particular question. Said question also caused the wooden skull on the table to giggle and snort in ways physically impossible for her anatomy.

"Back to business, the Winter Queen has need of your services, my liege."

Nodding, I carefully lifted the sleeping Maggie from my lap and carried her to her bed. Mouse curled up beside it and saw Mister strutting into the room as I left. Karrin had said she'd stay before starting which allowed Maggie to sleep over in my new house. It wasn't particular large but it was close enough to the Carpenter's. Michael had left after dropping Maggie off and returned soon after. He had more agents of chaos at home and Charity would be glad getting some help dealing with them.

We had gotten into a rhythm with Maggie alternating the place she slept and Karrin helping out whenever I had a patrol planned that evening with the Alphas. Or when Mab wanted something.

Working under Mab as her problem solver wasn't as bad as expected. Up until now she had only sent me to deal with warlocks who had summoned Outsiders. I hadn't much qualms executing them, as outsider summoning was pretty much at the end of a successful warlock's path and almost always needed human sacrifice to work. On top of that Mab, after inquiring about it, paid very well and it generated brownie points with the Counsel. Not like they dared to move against Mab but at least they could pretend I was also their weapon.

Everyone in the room knew that it most likely wouldn't last. One day or another Mab would force me to make another choice that would make me despise myself.

I hugged Karrin and gave her a kiss before turning to leave. She was doing her damnedest to make her recovery a 95% instead of the, according to the doctors, optimistic 90%. The least I could do was try to keep up with her.

I grabbed my bag of arcane paraphilia and revolver and put on my beloved duster. The heavy, silver infused blasting rod had a reassuring weight as I hung it in its loops inside of my duster. Finally I grabbed my staff, the Spear of Destiny, out of the umbrella stand.

The reason why I learned how to fight with a short spear was simple. After the heist of Hades I vowed to learn how to use the holy relics we had 'taken' from within to use against the outsiders. The spearhead had been an obvious first choice.

The Longinus greatly helped me focusing any spell I casted and it cut through flesh and enchantments as well if not better as the Holy Swords or the enchanted silver swords of the wardens. From what Alice, Bob and I had been to learn it did what it did thanks to Faith but mostly thanks to the reservoir of magical energy contained inside of the spearhead. This also allowed it to be used as an anchoring point for wards.

The staff was made from the same tree as my old one, the wood from Ebenazar's estate. After finishing carving it and taking it on several test runs I had paid the Svartalven handsomely to infuse my staff and blasting rod with silver and reinforce on non-magical ways. While I was splashing around more money than I ever had before getting the Winter Knight gig I also ordered silver swords and armor for my army of wee-folk.

After the Svartalven had finished the job and had even installed a mechanism that would allow me to attach and detach the spearhead to the staff that managed to be strong enough to be me-proof, it was Lucio's turn. She hadn't regained enough of her strength to do all the enchantments on the swords she made before falling victim to the body snatcher. It, however, was enough to strengthen both staff and rod to a point I could use it to bash people and monsters alike with Winter infused strength all day without breaking.

The end result were two sticks intricate lines of silver runes running along their length with bands of silver crisscrossing them to improve magic conductance. Anyone or anything that touched the spear without my explicit permission would be zapped. Those who persisted after that would be zapped harder until finally they'd only leave a grease stain on the ground.

Of course Elaine had laughed at my persistence of clinging to traditional and now blinged out tools. It also didn't help that I now could penetrate things with one of my phallic objects.

I hadn't looked back as I left the house, _my _house. I would return.

I even found myself wondering whether or not I'd learn a new language this time. I had had my second daughter, the spirit of air and knowledge, scion of a mortal and a fallen angel, AKA Alice rewire some of the unused parts in my brain. She was the reason I was managing my full program as well as I did without neglecting Demonreach and Alfred. She would let me practice that which I had learned that day while I slept. I also occasionally took her with me when I was running about in the city. I even trusted her enough to let her ride along with me, which improved my learning ability even more. I reckoned that the Winter Knight would be an international job and thus I took a gamble and let her rewire my brain just enough that I could pick up languages much quicker. I had learned plenty of French curses while I was hunting a warlock who had chosen to terrorize France.

I reached the street and got into the Munstermobile II that was waiting for me with running engine. We took off without talking a word, off to ensure the existence of reality for at least a few more days.

**OoOoO**

It was another nasty one. The warlock I was stalking through the Siberian forest in the Nevernever had gone the traditional route. He had found an ancient tome and used it to gain power. The mess the sudden extinction of the Red Court had allowed him to fly under the radar for long enough to break most of the Laws and gather power. That he operated in Siberia proper had helped him in that regard.

Then he decided he needed a pet Outsider of his own. He controlled the minds of seven young, female virgins and made them collectively commit "suicide" in a ritualistic fashion to summon and bind to him the beasty. I was angry, furious even at that senseless loss of human lives. My inner caveman was testing his the smashiness of his club and pointiness of his spear as I inched my way closer towards to his camp.

I had been hunting them using the stench exuding from the Outsider. It reeked both physically as metaphysically.

He had made at least on fatal mistake. He had fled into the Nevernever after acquiring his otherworldly servant straight into the domain of Winter and had trekked to the borders of that. His summoned muscle had kept him save from the predators in here. I didn't need that, _I _was the alpha predator at this place and moment and I was left alone. Even the very land was subtly helping me to remove the taint that had come to it. The shadows seemed to purposely hide my four legged form and shrubbery bent out of my way as I approached them. Even the wind had turned as I was stalking them to keep the Outsider from smelling him.

Looking at the back relaxed back of the warlock I wondered if he knew just what he summoned and what the consequences would be. Hell, he probably thought that the Outsider simply was a demon and that stories about faery were simply that, stories.

He would learn the error of his ways soon enough. And then there will be silence.

I soundlessly charged him and shifted back to human form to deliver a decapitating strike with the Spear of destiny. The only warning he got was the small magical pulse of me transforming and that only managed to startle him slightly. I felt a slight resistance as my blade cut through protective spells, flesh and bones with ease. The lifeless body collapsed in a puddle of fresh blood and excrements and his head rolled towards his summoned monstrosity.

I had killed him without giving a chance to retaliate. It was foolish to try and kill a wizard that saw you coming thanks to how devastating the Death Curse could be. My mother's had prevented the White King to gain power from feeding on humans, weakening him until he was supplanted by the help of yours truly.

The monster, Reek I decided gagging on its abysmal stench, began to stir as I used the leftover momentum from my strike to impale something that might have been a shoulder. With a vicious twist I ripped the spear out, nearly severing the limb that it was connecting to the main body.

I saw its retaliation coming and I ducked under the heavy handed but none the less deadly swipe at my head and used that new position to lay asunder two of his three legs.

A tentacle came down on my with the intention to both crush me and to stabilize itself.

"Too slow." I snarled the worlds mangled as I transformed while rolling out of the strike that menaced the ground I previously knelt.

His remaining leg, at least the remaining one that seemed structurally important appeared right in front of my muzzle. I bit down, ignoring the mucus drenched moss that covered it, and with a sharp snap of my head, ripped it out of the socket. I noticed that Winter had covered the insides of my mouth with a protective layer of frost. That probably meant that the mucus was pretty bad.

I dashed away as the asymmetric caricature of anatomy toppled over and shifted once more to face him, my staff squarely pointed at the thing.

A defensive bubble flickered to life as I channeled energy through my newest model. The top of the line materials improving speed of said action.

The head of the warlock bounced off harmlessly, the force behind the throw visible deforming it.

"I have to thank you Wizard. Freeing my of the bonds of servitude has earned you the right of…"

"_Infrigia!_" I shouted, cutting him off. The second biggest annoyance of the job had to be hearing the monologs of those things. The biggest one would be that spells sliding of their skins, harmlessly. As Reek demonstrated ever so kindly.

"… being killed painlessly." The Outsider continued, its voice as pleasant as nails dragging over a blackboard. He burst into a raspy, joyless laughter as my attack hit him. "Do you really think that an attack of that caliber would harm the great and mighty…"

I really couldn't stand to listening to this jackass. I shifted back into wolf form to get back into the melee, shifted back to being a human mid jump and impaled him with the Longinus.

The grotesque form fell once more as the tentacles that had pushed it upright jerked upon the holy relic deeply penetrating the torso.

"Negate this." I muttered before adding, louder. "_Ignis!_"

A miniature sun sprung to live in the depths of his torso, the place where any self-respecting stored his vital organs, greedily devouring the Outsider from the inside out.

Here in Winter you don't go the sun but the sun comes to you.

I stepped out of the reach of its death throws and felt a satisfaction radiating from the Mantle tinged with a certain sense of disappointment, mirroring my own feelings even though they had different sources.

For the mantle it had been a satisfying hunt even though the final enemy didn't give much of a fight while I was glad to rid the world from another monstrosity. Too bad people had to die before I was able to do something about it.

I considered a bit of wisecracking but decided it would be a waste of time. Even though I despised the cliché ways most of the supernatural baddies behaved I knew that I'd be in trouble if people read the evil overlord list and suddenly stopped giving monologs while being blissfully unaware of the Wonder Ball nature of their defenses.

Just look how far it had brought 'gentleman' Johnny Marcone and he was a vanilla mortal butting heads with supernatural forces. He even ran a bank that stored wealth for entities such as Ferrrovax and _Hades_, for fucks' sake.

With one last look at the black spot on the ground and the grown miniature sun dying a sputtering death as it had run out of fuel, I started to make my way back home. And here I thought the spell to be useless in combat situations

A thunderous roar was heard as gravity suddenly shifted ninety degrees broke trees in two. 'Falling' parallel I was treated by the sight of the landscape ahead twisting and folding up upon itself. The shapes it formed would be enough to give Escher nightmares. A second pulse hit me and blackness ensued.

**OoOoO**

As I finally decided to return to the land of the living I found myself stuck somewhere in the canopy of a tree. The close proximity of the tree enabled to determine I was in a different forest than I started in.

For starters the trees had leaves instead of needles. Also the snow and bitter cold had been traded in for warmth pollen. The air was too charged with magic for any place on earth so I concluded that I had probably been traveled to somewhere in Summer. That might prove itself to be a tad dangerous as Titania didn't exactly like this harmless wizard and Winter.

Also, if I read the signs correctly the dawn of a new day had just been upon us.

I felt an aura of dark energy and after climbing higher I saw a plume of smoke at the horizon coming from the same direction. I could feel a source of magic beyond the smoke. I figured I might as well go in that general direction as my amulet wasn't telling me anything. If I was lucky I'd find an outpost of the Council and I'd be back in time to make breakfast for Maggie and Karrin.

Yeah right.

My descent was slowed down by claws of ice I had rammed in the side of the tree and I started walking as soon as I hit the mossy forest floor. I decided to give the source of black magic a look as well, it being on the way and all. If it looked like something I could manage easily enough I might be able use it to cheer up the sullen Winter and thus preventing future problems.

I reached the source not even five minutes later and was greeted by the sight of a lush grove bordering a cave system. At least if you featured noxious fungi, rampant decay and an ungodly smell in the description of a lush grove.

It looked like something that would be too much trouble for what it was worth especially after having dealt with the stench of Reek all night long. I surveyed the scene one last time.

It was then I saw it. Covered in flies I saw a red fleshy mass near the entrance of the cave. Upon closer inspection I was able to make out a human corpse.

Collapsed with the remains of her face pulled in a grimace of agony and despair I could barely identify her as a woman. Flies were crawling in and out of large cuts all over her body, maggots were wriggling in and out of the smashed remains of her nose and eye sockets, concentrating on the ruptured remains of her eyeballs. As I came even closer I scare away the flies and they took off in a swarm of madness. She was sprawled on her belly, her intestines spilling out besides her. Large chunks of flesh were missing from her legs and at least one breast was torn off with enough force to take surrounding flesh with it. I could now see clearly see her lungs inside her ribcage. I could see blood on her thighs that didn't originated from any external wound. Her arms were simply broken. They twisted in unnatural angles, they had too many bends in them. The still managed to point in a direction.

They pointed to the corpse of a small boy in mangled to a similar degree. The stench of blood and feces started to overwhelm me as I realized what was covered by the writhing, buzzing black mass. Tens of bodies, a hundred corpses their density growing the closer they came to the entrance of the caves.

I closed my eyes and Listened. I have wondered for a long time whether that particular skill was something anyone could learn or it was something you had to be a wizard for. I was able to follow a conversation across the mall and I noticed it was enhanced since I had acquired the Mantle. I Listened and could not hear anything besides the grunts and guttural sounds of the wretched creatures that did this. No sobbing, no wails of agony and despair.

There were no survivors of this killing frenzy.

I shot right past the hot furious rage I had felt so often right to tranquil fury that promised utter annihilation of the enemy and I was greeted by the Winter.

I took a step forward, rime blossoming from my footprint and ice starting to cover my duster. And then another, towards the entrance of the cave the cold growing bitterer as I went.

There would be now screaming coming from me and there would be no survivors amongst the monsters that did this.

_What goes around comes around. And something you get what's coming around... and sometimes you are what's coming around._

Micheal said that to me when I was agonizing over the destruction I had caused when dealing with Bianca. I did it mostly out of vengeance, that of my own as well as that of those who were killed at her hands. I didn't really buy it then and I avoided thinking about it as such as these thoughts are a very slippery slope in wizardry.

Now was time to test that particular theory as I reached the entrance and saw the sheen of several pairs of sickly yellow eyes focus on me from the darkness within.

Ice wouldn't do it I thought and Winter agreed.

I pointed my staff in the entrance and energy came to me as I readily prepared my spell

True focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity? That theory would be put to the test that day.

"_Fuego_." I whispered and I drew the needle thick beam of white hot flames across the entrance.

I had to brace myself as the sudden expansion of the air inside the caves rushed out hot enough to neutralize the aura of frost I had going on and to set trees nearby connected entrances ablaze.

The inside of the cavern was illuminated as trolls and ogres were incinerated by the thermal bloom alone, some of them gnawing on human remains as the killing field hit them. The rock wall exploded outward where the beam hit it scattering the ashes of nearby monsters. I also saw tunnels leading down even further.

I felt something hit my duster and calmly turned around to eviscerate the troll that attacked me. The one that came after was cleaved in two with similar ease and the one with after that.

I left a trail of corpses as I made my way to the edge of the area that was steeped in the repulsive black energy that was born from death and despair.

I turned around and focused at the earth that lay before me while causally slaughtering any and all trolls that came to close.

"_Gravitus._" I stated as I stabbed the earth, anchoring me to it.

The air was filled with alarmed cries of wildlife and the straining of trees dealing with the sudden lack of gravity. Then came the thunder as I the gravity of a two mile radius came down on an area a mere three hundred feet across. Trees near and on top of the troll nest exploded in flaming shrapnel as they were exposed to the heightened gravity running through trolls and ogres that barely made it outside the blast zone. Some of the shrapnel even managed to reach me and encountered the defensive bubble I had put up as I activated my spell.

The thunder of exploding trees and spreading fire was accompanied by a loud, low and unescapable rumble of the cave system collapsing under the enormous pressure.

That took care of the inhabitants of the cave now I had to deal with the stragglers and the lucky survivors.

"_Flammemurus._" I spoke and using the rebound of the earth after finishing my spell forced magma out of the ground, creating a liberal ring of magma spouting fonts around the nest. Now the trolls were trapped and the extermination could began.

"Now, you're locked in here with me." I muttered as I stabbed the troll that approached me, panicking.

I went to work stealing the heat of groups of trolls, freezing them in place and shattering them with force spells only for the stolen heat to be used in flame spells that set others and the environment ablaze. I impaled enormous ogres with even larger icicles. And the ogres that were standing behind them. Seeing the impaled ogres still struggling, they were treated with a bolt of evaporating lightning.

Attacks delivered by weapons, no doubt pilfered from their previous victims, bounced off my duster ineffectively before their owners were removed from this world by my hand.

I strolled around the growing, burning wasteland of splintered wood, ash and gore, systematically eradicating the trolls I encountered. It seemed that the land was helping me, boosting the power of my spells and greatly lessening the burden upon me. Even though the reservoir in the Spear of Destiny was being used it was at a far lesser rate than that it should be.

I juggled thermal energy around, alternating flash freezing areas with setting fire to the foliage inside and beyond the ring of fire. All the while Winter was singing in my veins driving me to utter ruthlessness.

The last monsters standing were a pair of ogres. I decided to take care of them in a more personal way.

Transforming into wolf me I charged the nearest one, it starting to shout in dread. I hamstrung the screaming ogre as I ran past it turning around and shifting as I made it past it. I sliced the back of the unharmed ogre open and jumped on the back of the toppling monster as I shifted. My claws digging deeply into the blood covered impromptu platform, I launched myself at the throat of hamstrung survivor. I bit down deeply, letting my momentum whip me around the neck of the ogre, ripping out his throat in the process. I shifted once more, midair, barreling towards the bleeding and convulsing ogre. With every bit of force I could muster and the added force of flight I impaled the skull of the last breathing ogre in the area with the silver but cap of my spear with a sickening crunch.

"You've just been parkour'd to death, you ugly motherfucker." I said to its remains as I pulled my spear out of its head.

I noticed how the wound was faintly smoking and filed the information somewhere in the back of my mind. It looked like somehow silver was filling in iron's role as the Bane.

I looked around the wasteland that had been my battlefield in awe of the sheer destruction I had been able to cause even seeing weird patches where ice and fire existed side by side.

I decided to vamos before someone, somehow made the innocent wizard do the cleanup.

I wanted to go, I was even moving again towards the accumulation of magical energy I had felt beyond the horizon.

But it was not meant to be. I could barely see a black shadow moving out of the corner of my eyes before one bruised and battered and especially tired wizard was tackled to the ground without any thoughts of his wellbeing.

I was suddenly found myself lying on the floor, my hands sprawled above my head. A naked woman was pinning me down by sitting on my and I had the feeling probably that she didn't have anything planned I'd enjoyed. It had to do with how her dreadlocks seemed to move on their own accords.

At least I had front row seats to a pair of truly magnificent tits.


	2. Chapter 2

****Disclaimer****: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. Basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.****

**First off a shout out and huge thanks to Heir of the Void. He was willing to act as a beta-reader, a sounding chamber and a editing wizard worthy of the senior council. The linguistic quality has improved considerably thanks to his efforts.**

**About the power levels comparison between the Berserk the Dresden Files. I'd say that the average monster of Midland will cap out on untrained Dresden!ghoul level and the Apostles are in the range between military trained ghoul and Denarian. Zodd for example would be a more pragmatic and experienced Genewoska with the invisibility traded in for better regeneration. Generally speaking the Beserk!monsters are less intelligent but far more numerous than the Dresden!monsters with as exceptions of stuff like the Sea God. I feel that God Hand should probably be at least Lords of Outer Night powerful with Femto being a statistical stray at above Fairy Lady power levels.**

**That out of the way, I hope you enjoy.**

„You know Toots? I'm a bit disappointed that you really only suffer from some weird mutant dandruff," I said while dispatching psycho-lady (now with added bat wings of doom) for fifth time that day – this time with a lance of ice for variety's sake – "being able to fly and avoid this nonsense would be handy right now"

"I'm as well. Just as I thought that I'd finally have a chance with Lady Tinkerbelle my dreams get cruelly crushed." The miniature Spartan's ears drooped ever so slightly.

Even if you'd never catch me actually saying it, seeing the little fairy this downtrodden did break my heart a bit. He was one of my oldest friends after all and I did think he did himself a disservice. I would have died facing Aurora if it wasn't for him and his kin and again when I was jumped by a fairy hit squad with an affinity for using iron pins.

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if I'd soon seen him dragging around a massive pair of brass balls. Most wizards, me included, shudder at the thought of a genuine Skinwalker, a creature Morgan literally had to nuke to dispatch, never mind actually fighting said nightmare while being only somewhat larger than average pixie.

"Now listen major-general, that prissy, jealous, backstabbing diva wouldn't be able to keep up with anyways."

That was as far as I got until Toot-Toot gasped, his eyes growing to size of small plates.

"Harry please tell me that you don't actually believe the story of Peter Pan in the official form. Peter was simply a cat's paw for lady Tinkerbelle to collect enough children to empower herself by preventing them from aging, a win-win situation in my books by the way. She needed the power to singlehandedly defeat the powerful Warlock Hook and his ticking crocodile demon after they dared to move against the king of dewdrop fairies. Of course Peter took all the glory." Toots was gesturing vividly by this point, clearly upset by my ignorance. "Disappointed in you, I am." He solemnly exclaimed, shaking his head in quiet disgust. On top of stealing my spiel he also somehow managed to shift his skin tone to a greyish green and was leaning on a cane in midair.

"I don't know whether I should be ashamed of my ignorance, be glad that Bob isn't here to laugh his metaphorical ass off, or be proud of how much I rubbed off to you Toots." I said, effectively conveying my inner turmoil which, after having some time to recalibrate, started to decide on pride.

Of course I wasn't able to say as much because, at that moment, my paranoia senses began tingling on what I had identified as the crazy stalker lady frequency.

"Du gehörst mir!" She cried, obliterating her non existing element of surprise.

"So you _can_ do more the screech and moan routine!" I exclaimed whirling around to face her "Too bad I don't talk German."

"_Ventas servitas!_"

A sudden gust of wind and, I'm not kidding, what looked like an army of tiny, translucent insects launched the succubus wannabe into the sky mid-leap.

"_Fuego!_"

A wrist thick beam of fire, somehow lined with miniature, fiery lizards, shot out of my freshly drawn blasting rod and hit the flailing demoness, who was still trying to orient herself.

"Boom, headshot!" I quipped, basking in the glory my skillful shot.

I wanted to turn back to the way out of my lush and only _slightly_ burning environment when I heard the now familiar wet impact of innards and ectoplasm hitting the local vegetation with varying velocities. This time however it was accompanied by a heavier sounding thud. After a quick search of the impact zone and a bit of old fashioned poking through gore I found something.

I would rate it as bizarre, were it not for the all other shit I've been through over the years. It was a brown egg shaped stone with the facial elements of that one creepy fat uncle most people have scrambled all over it. Intrigued by it, I decided to take it with me for future study, in hopes of making some sense of the situation. Just as I pocketed the egg I could have sworn that I saw the mouth move a tiny bit, but after a further inspection for rock-ness, which the object passed with flying colors, I wrote it off as the incoming fatigue playing tricks with me.

With one last glance to the macabre work of modern art I helped to create I resumed my trek towards presumed civilization together with my now silent but glowering fairy companion, giving me some time to sort out my tumultuous mind.

I first noticed budding Miss McGowan being a construct out of intestines covered with a skin of ectoplasm after my ill-fated bout of optimism while under the influence of the first round against her. The idle thought apparently was seen as a challenge towards bizarro-world. Like I've always told people: just because it's paranoia, that doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon behind you ready to eat your face off. Rational psychologists, none of whom would have had the slightest change of survival out here, might have made a case that I suffered from a massive persecution complex. I choose to overrule that diagnosis and decided that this world was actively out to get me, as I was soon met by numerous leftover trolls, giant nightmare bats and demonic spiders, all of which I had encountered what felt like a lifetime before. It was after a short round of clean-up duty that I had to fend of the demon tart for the second time. By the virtue of not incinerating her this time (I opted for impaling with extreme prejudice) I found out her true innardy nature.

Since then, her attacks had become regular enough to use as an impromptu biological clock. It had gotten to the point where one had to wonder where all the intestine came from and whether or not they would run out sometime soon.

It wasn't the only thing I had come to grip with in my little stroll through the forest, which I had found severely lacking of any roads, yellow bricked or otherwise. As the adrenaline subsided, I had some time to ponder how exactly I've had been able to throw that much magic around.

Simply put, the air was charged with enough magic to rival the Nevernever. It practically crackled with the stuff, which was partially responsible for my initial confusion. To top it off, magic in this corner of the world felt practically alive. Spells moved with a gleeful ease. My fire spells were even more ravenous than normal, my wind spells danced with playful enthusiasm, my ice spells radiated predatory serenity, and the gravity spell I used earlier, one I hadn't been able to cast without a massive ley line until now, seemed to speak volumes of stoic inevitability.

At first I thought I was hallucinating, but after a few more encounters with my newly appointed favorite cannon fodder, I had to either accept that yes, I was seeing tiny critters interacting with my spells on a kind of elemental level, or that I was going crazy. Wind spells caused ethereal insects to appear, with ice it was a few of the insects being swarmed by translucent fish, and fire beams had flaming lizards clawing outwards with a primal hunger. The longer I was here, the more I saw these critters, even when I wasn't doing my Gandalf on crack impression.

"Harry, you did understand what the demon lady said or do I really have to translate that for you?" Toot-Toot's question, in combination with his sudden appearance in front of my face pulled me out of my musings.

From his aggravated look and what might have been actual thunderclouds forming over his little head, it probably wasn't the first time he asked me this question in one form or another. After his perplexed statement way back when I first found out that the pizza-obsessed but scary-competent fairy could, of course, speak Russian, it wasn't that big a leap to assume that he could also speak German, amongst a plethora of other languages. During the first revelation of this ability, he proceeded to argue the big black Russian Knight of the Cross' choice of name for him – in Russian but that should go without saying. I think it took most of the self-control Sanya had to not burst into laughter at first, only to get swept up by the fairy's fierce sincerity and arguing back at him.

"No Toots, I don't know what she said. For the sake of argument, assume you're trying to communicate with a seven-foot hairless ape." The statement wasn't so far from the truth, in my opinion. Lord knows how many times my chivalrous tendencies caused my inner caveman to grunt in outrage and looking for the nearest club-like object due to seeing a woman being hurt. Call me chauvinistic for that, I don't care. Just don't hurt children, women or the defenseless near me. The Winter Mantle agreed with me on this point; just ask the Red Court or those Trolls.

Oh wait. You can't.

"Also try to avoid big words; you're talking to the man who still only knows the barest basics of Latin despite using it on a daily basis and it being it the official language for the White Council." I added, even though that it probably was for the best that my Latin skills were so lacking. It would go very poorly if I forced-pushed or immolated someone during an official meeting because I was too familiar with the language.

"I'm going to ask for a raise if this continues." Toot-toot Muttered before turning to address me. "Basically, the ever-resurrecting demon stated that you belong to her, in very definite terms[JL7] ."

"Even though that sounds ominous and all, we should probably tell her that I'm not interested in long distance relationships. And that she's too late. I don't think Mab would react kindly to hearing that she has to share her favorite stress ball." I said, trying to mollify the pixie.

Too be honest, from what I've seen so far, I didn't feel that threatened. I reckoned she wasn't even close to most Sidhein terms of power. And those were quite killable.

"Talking about Miss McGowan, wasn't her next attack due two minutes ago? Even if you consider increased running distance from her nearest intestine storage?" I asked, having finally fallen into a comfortable rhythm with her attacks. Perhaps one little known fact about wizards is that they're even bigger creatures of habit than most accountants. It could also be just be my paranoia.

"I don't know, Harry. What I do know is that we're almost at the edge of the forest and thus have nearly reached a bordering town, which I might add was also affected by your gravity spell." Toot-Toot supplied.

That was actually surprisingly helpful. Well, he should know, since I _did_ sent him scouting after discovering that his fairy dust did not in fact grant flight to the recipient.

All things considered, it might have been for the better that I didn't go for an avian form to shift to. Knowing my luck, I'd be plagued by pockets of low air pressure and freak turbulences.

"Hey Toots, can you give me any pointers on what I should avoid saying, or perhaps even tell what I have to say to not be killed the instant I open my mouth?" I requested. "I would even consider a renegotiation of your wages when we get out of this mess."

"Well if you put it that way." He replied, and whizzed a bit closer to my right ear.

He taught me a sentence which meant, according to him, that I came in peace and requested a place to spend the night. I choose to write off the mischievous tone I heard in his voice, as well as the sudden, materialization large, curved horns on his helmet as figment of my imagination.

I have a dream that someday I would know better.

**OoOoO**

We approached the edge of the village trying, to look as non-threatening as possible. I shouldn't have tried. A man packed in lean muscle casually walking out of the forest was bad. The fact that the village was a recent victim of rogue pocket of zero gravity, the forest was still on fire weren't helping my case either.

While approaching the town I could see the damage my brief use of earth magic had caused. Plenty of straw roofs were collapsed, adding to the general mess of scattered and broken items lying on the ground. The first sign of actual life was the shout of one of the village's guardsman, probably a recent addition to the daily life of these people if the grove was any indication, which in turn was taken up by fellow guardsmen and villagers alike.

And thus, by the time I finally reached the village proper, a sizable crowd had gathered, each of them watching my every move with mistrust written clearly on their faces. The biggest of the lot, a broad shouldered man dressed in leather armor with chainmail visible and armed with a well-used spear and axe, approached me. He seemed a man of few words, but his body language spoke volumes about how far his trust in me went.

From the looks of it, that trust went about as far as he could kick me; probably not that far. I really didn't blame him; I probably would've reacted far worse if I'd be approached by an oddly dressed stranger sauntering out of a place of death and despair. Since it looked like he was waiting for an explanation, I choose to oblige him.

"Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug ist voller Aale." I tried to convince him of my non-threatening ways as quickly as humanly possible.

It didn't really work.

His face shifted from guarded curiosity with a tinge of paranoia to something that said 'how many men do I need to solve this problem as soon as possible?'

I could swear that I heard Toots badly masking a chuckle as a cough.

"Du hast wunderbare Schenkel." I interjected, desperately trying to break that particular train of thought before it reached its destination.

I needed to diffuse the situation enough for me to find shelter for the night without being murdered by overzealous villagers. I was having a hard time ignoring the now-snickering pixie floating unnoticed by everyone who wasn't a poor, harmless wizard being scrutinized by people radiating an atmosphere that would be right at home in the Raith residence.

It didn't look like my impeccable German skills convinced the guard of my friendly nature. His body language showed a deterioration of his opinion to the rough equivalent of wondering where he kept his recently sharpened pitchforks. He look like he was wondering whether it was worth building a pyre, or if he could just try and throw me back in the raging inferno that had replaced large parts of the previously non-burning forest.

As he started to signal orders to his underlings, I decided to take one last shot, on the off-chance that at least some of _German 101 by Professor Toot-Toot_ would prove to be somewhat useful. Since I didn't rate those chances very high I also started to form a spell at the same time to be on the same time and noticed a slight flickering in the torches the lynch mob were carrying. There was a reason as to why there were relatively few very old wizards that didn't suffer from paranoia as only it was that trait, be it natural or learned, that enabled them to survive the more medieval periods of history where the torturing and burning of wizard was considered a national hobby by some. And who was I to question that technique?

"Lassen sie Ihren Unterwäsche fallen, Herr William…" I was about to say more when suddenly something clicked inside my head.

"Toot-Toot!" I roared, interrupting my veiling spell, "Did you just make me quote Monty _fucking_ Phyton? In German?!"

To improve my odds of survival, I decided to also shift to my wolf form to make a speedier escape. The tactic paid immediate dividends as a hunting spear crossed through the empty air which was, until recently, occupied by a certain unlucky wizard's torso and would have left a nasty bruise.

"That's what you get for ridiculing Lady Tinkerbelle!" Piped a voice, barely audible over the tumultuous crowd as I made my escape

The moment I was clear, I swore to use more precise wording the next time I asked Toot-Toot a language related question.

**OoOoO**

I used the last of daylight to locate a source of water. I made quick work of hunting a pair of rabbits which was pretty easy once you possessed the senses of a wolf and my innate ability to Listen. My backpack containing my rations and most of my wizard's toolkit was lost during the origami session which, in combination with an angrily rumbling stomach, forced me to cut my flight a bit short for my tastes. I wasn't that far away from the village, but I reasoned the inhabitants would probably be content with chasing away the scary monster. They'd probably be more worried more about making sure the village survived the night.

"Once again, I'm truly sorry about slandering your precious lady." I said, as I cleaned the rabbits with the Spear of Destiny next to the freshly started campfire with water boiling above it.

What can I say, I'm pragmatic, and the detachable spearhead made for a nice knife. I was fairly certain that He wouldn't mind.

"Lieutenant General Toot-Toot, I really need to be able to talk German to get out of this twisted caricature of a dimension and for that I need your help." I pleaded my case to the pouting fairy. "Besides, all things considered what we call pizza won't be around for another 200 years or so."

That got his attention, at least partially, so I pressed on while skewering the rabbits on pointed sticks and installing them on my impromptu fireside rig. "So please, sit down, have some rabbit and let us try to find a way out from the bizarre-world." I proposed as a peace offering, finally placating the fairy.

"Alright, Harry, you win. Just try to control that mouth of yours or suffer the consequences" Toot-Toot agreed, landing on my shoulder and joining me in watching the meat crackling away over the fire.

"No promises, you know me," I answered. "Controlling my mouth isn't something I see happening anytime soon. If deities and cosmic horrors don't do the trick, I can't see anything else doing it. Besides an angry Charity, that is."

Nobody messed with Charity, sparring partner of a Knight of the Cross, mother of seven, and assailant of Arctis Tor. The fetch found that out the hard way. There was a perfectly valid reason that my daughter was safe under her care.

"Well that all said, let us try and be a bit productive and see how well whatever Alice has done to the organic ballast in my skull that optimistic people might call a brain works."

"Just try to take it seriously, will you?" The newly promoted lieutenant general responded, realization on just how much a Sisyphean chore this would be slowly spreading across his face.

"Jawohl mein Führer!" I exclaimed, a lopsided grin plastered across my own face.

Toot-Toot sighed in expiration.

And so my first lecture in the German language began, in the final hour before true nightfall, near a campfire on a patch of dry dirt and enjoying some freshly caught and roasted game.

**OoOoO**

"What language still needs three genders and four cases with changing articles for each and every one of them? I thought that Latin should have taught people better." I exclaimed, frustration rife in my voice.

The last hour hadn't been going that well, to be honest, other than for of the salamanders who received the leftovers of our meal. Yes, I now knew phrases of which Toot-Toot swore were actually useful in appearing normal and non-threatening. He even commented that my pronunciation wasn't all that terrible, which should be counted as a victory for such a pure blooded American as I. Our normal way of doing things is simply talk English to non-speakers but more slowly and much louder, in the grand delusion that that somehow makes the difference in being understandable.

At least Toot-Toot was enjoying himself. He had once again summoned his comically large whiteboard out of the depth of whatever special hell it came from, and this time his own armor had been somehow changed to look like the clothes the archetypical teacher of ye olden times he was busy emulating right now. And yes, that did include a wooden cane and he wasn't afraid of using.

"Ouch! Toots, do you really have to do that?" I said, reacting to the fourth strike I had received that hour. "Most people would show much more caution to the Winter Knight, destroyer of the Red Court and slayer of Fairy queens…"

"And all-around badass that had to be rescued from a Pixie who attacked him with needles the size of toothpicks. By yours truly." Supplied Toot-Toot, cutting my rant of epic proportions short by a considerable amount. "You do know that I know you well enough to spot an empty threat, don't you, boss? Besides you wanted to learn, and it won't work if you stand around gaping like a fish out of the water as soon as the conversation moves past greetings. Also you were once again slacking off."

I was sure he was going to say more. I saw him taking a breath, but it was cut short by the arrival of true night. Oh, and there was also the suddenly appearance of a horde of monsters.

I knew I was forgetting something.

Dozens of skeletons rose of the previously untouched ground, an ember glow lighting up the still nearby forest turned out to be fiery imps and the sky filled with big bat-like creatures. Every one of them was looking at me with hungry madness, and as if on command they cried out in a single-minded hunger and began to charge my position.

"Stars and stones, it's really has been this kind of day, hasn't it?" I muttered standing up and gathering energy.

"_Murus maximus_!"

I stabbed the ground with my staff, connecting me to the golems, the earth elementals, thus making this particular piece of earth magic a whole lot easier.

A 10 foot circular wall of solid stone rose up all around me in the flickering multi-colored light of the campfire, hindering the advance of the hordes of evil. Using the newly erected walls as a base I invested a bit of my will to form a magic circle, isolating my magic from that of the rest of the world.

Normally, I'd be content with simply sitting it out inside the circle, as it was impermeable to the supernatural side of town, I had no idea that this reality also abided by those rules.

Besides, knowing my luck, they'd somehow find out that rocks would fly through the circle unhindered.

The crashing sound from high above announced that magic circles did indeed worked as intended here as one of the bat-creatures face planted into it with a shower a pretty sparkles.

"Well, looks that at magic circles are one less thing I have to file a complaint for when I invariably meet the creatures of this parallel dimension." I said to Toot-Toot.

In all, it had been a productive night all.

I would be able to not get killed in the first couple of seconds the next time I was near civilization, thanks to the power of German stock phrases, and I now knew that magic circles worked. I also knew what effect my aura had on my immediate surroundings. The taste of the day was apparently the old making candles flicker in weird colors, which would be a problem since it looked like there's a lot of them in this time period and, if the flickering was any indication the size of natural flames I was able to effect was proportional to my magical output.

Another crash overhead pulled me out of my musings. I noticed a steady banging against the walls had begun. Occasionally, a flame imp jumping high enough to crash into the spectral wall of the magic circle instead of the stone wall proper. It was another difference with home. The monsters over here were seemed possessed by a mindless, ferocious hunger to devour and destroy. Sure, I there were some monsters that weren't the sharpest tools in the shed on earth, but almost every one of them could be reasoned with, at least in some capacity

And every one of them could be taught respect and fear.

I had the feeling that these guys wouldn't respond to that. Hell's bells, a couple of hours ago I annihilated an entire nest of those troll and ogre subspecies, set the forest on fire, and killed plenty more nasties the way out. It simply didn't seem to matter to my would-be killers.

"I sure wouldn't mind if the testing made less noise." I said to Toot-Toot, while I turned to face him, wondering about why he has been so quiet up until now.

The Pixie looked distressed, nervously looking around. Sweat trickled from his was while he was starting to hyperventilate and started to move around banging his head to the inside of the magic circle like an insect desperately trying to find a way out of your home. By now the wind had picked up as well and I was able to see the Sylph elementals performing the same frantic dance Toot-Toot displayed.

Luckily, I never had to agonize over whether I should take the break the circle to calm my dear friend Toots, but leaving me to fend for myself against hordes of enemies. A boulder of a size that should incapable of flight smashed through the solid stone wall I erected precisely to defend myself against such antics, barely missing me. I wasn't as lucky with the wreckage that followed as I was pelted by fist sized rocks, covering me in nasty bruises.

With a sigh of relief from within my perimeter and a roar of relief from outside, the magic circle shattered and the hosts leapt in to introduce themselves.

I plunged into Winter and, instead of starting my standard energy juggling shtick, I decided to try something new. Reaching out to the recently freed Sylphs I gave a simple mental suggestion to them to feed on the heat of my surroundings, which happened to include the many adversaries I had to face tonight.

"_Infringa!_" I shouted, spurring the elementals to action with a surge of Winter energy.

The Sylphs rode my wave of cold, forming into an arctic gale in a matter of moments and ripping the warmth out of the fleshy monsters around me and freezing the skeletons in place, increasing their speed until bones were flying through the air, ripped apart by the storm wind alone.

The resulting quiet was only interrupted by the shattering of frozen bats forgetting the first rule of flying.

A great cracking of ice announced the beginning of round two as a one-armed twenty foot demon consisting entirely out of fangs, claws and rock broke the encasing of ice as if it wasn't there. Many of the outer flame imps, out where the Sylph were either to fast or to spread out to fully freeze them, began to thaw and stir, ready for revenge.

Diving deeper in winter I stormed towards the rock demon, eagerly meeting the beast's unspoken challenge. Where the ogres were still figuring out the impromptu field of ice and the skeletons didn't stand a chance of moving all, I was at home, knowing exactly where to put my feet, compensating for any loss of traction with ease. Too bad mister tall-and-ugly was unhindered as well by the virtue of his giant mass simply splintering the ice underfoot.

When we met it, was almost over for me as soon as it began as the demon suddenly performed a lightning quick sweep with his spike-covered tail. I survived thanks to Winter's instincts and a quick discharge of one of my force rings, deflecting the deadly blow. I anticipated his follow-up, a backhand with his one arm, and brought my shield up in time to be launched by the sheer force of the blow.

Releasing my shield, I landed in a roll (Parkour!) and ran back to my opponent. It was on.

"_Fuego!_" A small burst of flames sublimated the ice in front of his ugly face, and the resulting fog blocked his view.

I shifted into my wolf form to make a sharp turn to his armless side just outside of his reach, making him swipe at the empty air as I reached his flank. Shifting back, I readied my spear to pierce his armpit, a weak point of any decent humanoid monster, with all my might.

I struck.

The resulting numbness in my hands and the ringing sound of Longinus hitting solid stone confirmed my previous assessment, this being was a rock hard though guy.

"_Forzare!" _Not wanting to be at the receiving end of either claws or spikey tail I launched myself away from danger, knocking the rock demon back. I landed in a three point crouch any action hero would be proud of, while the stone giant impacted with a small earthquake.

Unfortunately, one of flame imps decided he didn't value my artistic performance and bit into the shin of the leg that was poking out of my enchanted duster. Enraged by the sudden pain, I dropped my staff to rip the little demon asunder.

Ice coated my hands, forming icy claws over my fingers. After quickly eviscerating the demon and flash freezing the wound, I saw something silver flash past my face and a gurgling sound just behind me.

Toot-Toot had once more saved my hide. His time, he had dissected a second flame imp that had gone for the sneaky route and attacked me from behind while I was crouched to tend to my wound.

"I know you're annoyed and all, but do you really want to let yourself be killed by a lowly imp?" The pixie deadpanned, with a tiny hint of bloodlust lining his voice.

"I'll keep the small fry away from you." Toot said. "I need to vent a bit after what happened in the circle but I do expect you to continue the lesson with conjugating 'hassen' ." He said, wearing a facial expression to make Leonidas proud as he whizzed off to wreak aerial havoc amongst the surviving and newly arrived mooks.

By the time I retrieved the Spear of Destiny and once again faced down the now somewhat weary Thing, I decided to try something new.

"Fuego!"

For the second time this battle I used my favorite element, but this time instead of the humble stream of fire from earlier, a thumb thick bar of liquid fire shot out of the spear hitting the demon squarely in the face.

I didn't expect much to happen, but sadly Ben Grimm over there had to confirm just that. The Thing roared in pain and frustration, his stone face beginning to glow an attractive bright red as he began to charge towards me.

"Harry, I can't hear you!" Toot-Toot chimed from the other side of the battle field.

"Ich hasse." I began, concentrating on the oncoming juggernaut.

The Thing arrived and wasted no time in beginning a rake with his massive arms.

"Du hasst."

Winter and I had had enough. We were tired and annoyed. Side-stepping the vicious downward blow, I slammed the end of my staff into his knee with all my might, hitting him squarely with the silver butt cap. Much to my surprise, a splintering sound filled the air, and I readied my shield in an angled plane.

"Er hasst."

The expected tail swipe harmlessly slid off my shield, knocking the demon off balance. The shattered knee and redirected momentum prevented him from stopping his rotation, exposing the shoulder of his good arm. Another forceful strike crushed the intricate joint.

"Wir hassen."

The demon, now lying on his back, looked at me with an anger so absolute it would have cowered even me not so long ago. I stabbed the closest eye out with Longinus, eliciting a fierce roar from the severely wounded monster.

"Ihr hasst."

I jumped backwards to dodge a clumsy kick from his remaining good leg.

I landed near the stream I found earlier and used to hydrate myself and saw that the damn demon was struggling to get up once more. I had to find some way to permanently deal with him.

I decided to try something potentially stupid.

Standing near the edge of the water I started to gather my will, seeking for Sylphs and nearby Undines. As the Thing actually managed to get back on his feet, my vision filled with tiny ethereal fish and insects. A ball of water from the stream gathered around the Spear of Destiny as rime formed all around me. The Thing was half running, half hopping toward me, but it was entirely filled with unholy fury closing and closing in to me, planning to use his sheer mass to reduce me to a stain on the bank.

"Sie hassen."

The demon was now thirty feet removed from showing what I looked like after being hit by a train.

I infused a tiny bit of Soulfire into the prepared spell.

"_Scatebra aqua_!" I exclaimed, pointing my spear at the onrushing demon. The gathered elementals rushed forward at a mind shattering speed, taking the water with them. Bracing myself, I dragged the resulting jet of highly concentrated water across the Thing. The effect was instantaneous.

He slowed down as the jet traveled over and through his body. This lasted just until two halves slid to a full stop right in front of my feet.

"Ich hasste." I finally concluded with the past tense of hate, slowly unclenching my fists that were still clutching the staff. I noticed that I had pushed myself back a couple of feet and was now standing on the recently frozen river.

"Hey Toots, are you finished yet? Mr. Ugly over here is done clobbering." I shouted towards my brave rear guard.

"Finishing up myself, boss. Care to help me out?" Toots responded.

So I went over there and we finished off the last stragglers.

After a few more German lessons, we decided that Toot-Toot would stand guard until morning and catch some sleep during the day in a pocket of my duster. I nestled against a tree and slept until the next morning.

**Don't worry the German will fade into the background as Harry improves his knowledge. Why German I hear you ask. A common theory is that Berserk is set in Denmark around 1650 or at least a parallel world approximation thereof. German spoken by large parts of the population those days according to my research and the Last major change of the German language also finished around that time. I know German myself so that was that.**

**Also while writing I noticed that some of the monsters of Peter V. Brett's Demon Cycle (do read those books if you haven't already) sneaked into my head and refused to leave. Expect more cameos from other settings. Just imagine them having been abducted to Midland as the World Transformation happened as well.**

**Finally reviews are highly appreciated, even needed for the continuing improvement of this fic.**


	3. Chapter 3

****Disclaimer****: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. Basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.****

**Once again huge thanks to Heir of the Void for editing this chapter and putting up with my antics.**

**I think now would be the best time to address concerns regarding the continuation of this story and the update speed. The thing is that this project was started because the idea didn't leave me alone coupled with the desire to improve my English skills. For me this means that as a non-native speaker I need more conscious thought while writing and thus more time. Also editing and me going over the edits for the sake of improvement takes its time as well leading to even longer gaps between the chapters. On top of that I tend to wait for feedback from either you, my readers, or the Heir of the Void before starting/continuing the chapter which leads to... Well I think you get the idea by now. I wouldn't hold your breath for multiple chapters per month outside but I'll do my best to achieve at least that. Finally have no fear about me dropping this story anytime soon. I pretty much noticed right away that I truly liked writing and I'd like to see where this story goes myself.**

**That out of the way let's answer some questions and remarks. Even though that Dresden meeting the witches at the Mansion of the Spirit Tree would have been interesting there was one important thing that lead me to set the story post World Transformation. Harry simply opening portals and going to unknown places, be it out of curiosity or in pursuit, is too much OOC for my personal taste. The World Transformation provided a good enough excuse to start tormenting him while circumventing my personal pet peeve.**

**As to him meeting the Berserk cast. Yes he will meet them later on but most of them are on a boat which makes ****a meet up**** a bit problematic at the moment. I do plan for some update snippets regarding them in the nearish future.**

**I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.**

Toot-Toot's casual disregard of causality started to scare me. Sure, in my fatigue induced near-delirium I did suggest he could nap in my duster's pocket. That didn't mean a 19 inch pixie in armor should actually be able to comfortably snuggle in said pocket the way he did. Considering his sudden passion for visual gags and his newly found pocket dimension, I worried about how far bizarro-world's corruption went.

I was once again moving towards the source of magic I sensed yesterday. Sadly I had to reevaluate as it became clear that said source was of the faraway but massive variety, as opposed to the small and close variety I had initially assumed it to be.

I should've had a small limp in my step thanks to the philistine flame imp of yesterday. However, the Winter Mantle numbed the pain with its human juggernaut shtick to the point of non-existence, but that simply meant that it was another thing I had to consciously remind myself of. Even though I had flash frozen the wound to sterilize it immediately after detaching the Imp, the wound had turned an unattractive shade of red. I was really hoping that the combination of my wizardly immunity and the Winter Mantle would stave off further infection, since I didn't like the prospect of having one in an age without antibiotics.

The sight of another village, this one without any forest close by, tore me out of my worries. The sun wasn't fully up yet, so I decided to clean myself, do some maintenance and find myself some food. There was no way in hell I'd get anywhere civilization while there were still potential candles burning. Being chased by an angry mob gets old real quick.

OoOoO

Half an hour after I felt sunrise wash over me, I made my way towards the village. Toot-Toot was still happily napping inside my pocket and I was mentally going over the German phrases I'd probably need in the oncoming confrontation.

As I quickly learned as a P.I., you can get pretty much everywhere as long as you looked like you were absolutely sure that, yes, you did have every right to be there. A sprinkling of haste, annoyance or putting on of airs only helped in that regard.

So here I was, slipping in the role of an annoyed and tired wanderer seeking shelter and walking through an area that could be called the entrance without any more than slightly suspicious glances. Of course it helped that the persona I acted as was very close to the truth; the only thing I really had to do was stop worrying about them finding out I was a wizard.

There was also the fact that my personal background wasn't a dramatic forest fire.

That probably did something to make me seem more suspicious yesterday. The only things that were hampering this attempt right now were my height, my lack of armor, and my unusual clothing.

Hopefully, as long as I kept the talking to the absolute minimum I would do just fine.

And maybe, if I really believed it, I could make piles of local currency appear out of thin air.

The first warning bell should have gone off when the self-designated spokesperson of the settlement started slowly but surely leading me toward what looked like a nearby farm while we exchanged reserved small talk.

Actually, that was probably not the most accurate description of the, for the lack of better words, conversation. The big man accompanying me was actually talking while I tried my best to match the sentences I learned in the crash course with what was being said. I felt I was doing a fairly decent job at it since I only received few confused glances.

I should have noticed that the big man was looking around in what might be called a nervous matter. I still hoped that that could be attributed to the healthy paranoia needed to survive in this world, but that was shattered by a cry from the farm.

"Da ist er! Fasst den Hexer!" The guard from yesterday shouted in a commanding voice.

From the looks of it I was still very much in easy reach of the place of my previous misadventures.

He looked like he was just feeding and grooming his still sweaty horse.

It also it looked like me and my guide weren't as alone on our little stroll as I thought.

A sizable crowd had already formed a semicircle behind my back. I couldn't understand any of the tumultuous chatter issuing from the crowd other than repeated repetitions of the word 'Milch', which I was pretty sure referred to milk.

What I had to make of it was another thing entirely.

One depressing advantage of being me was that I was used to situations far, far, worse than a still indecisive mob, especially after having done this dance already not that many hours before. Looking around for the best escape route I felt something stir in the pocket of my duster.

"What's with the noise? Someone's trying to sleep here!" Toot-Toot exclaimed, annoyed.

He was now peaking, blearily-eyed, over the edge of his impromptu bed. The sudden sight of him elicited a couple of surprised gasp of the younger members of the mob, while most of them remained as oblivious as before. I also noticed he was cradling the weird stone I found yesterday.

"Uhm, what have you done this time, my liege?" the lieutenant general asked. "And why are they talking about curdled milk?"

"To answer the first question, I've met our friend from yesterday." I whispered in return. "As for the second question, I'm really hoping you got that one wrong, because the implications would be unfair even for my standards"

The gathered crowd was still growing and I noticed that a couple of them had taken the time to light candles, which were flickering in a Technicolor fashion. Hell's Bells, if Toot-Toot was right I had to worry about my aura doing the clichéd curdling milk thing on top of the messing around with flames. At least it wasn't…

No. Let's not even go there and give this world more inspiration about how to mess up my life even more.

Before I could delve further into the self-centered global conspiracy theories, the mob had reached its critical mass and went to action.

"Fuego!" I bellowed. A very impatient Winter had taken over control and incinerated a spear mid-flight, hitting a straw roof further back with burning slack and setting it on fire.

I used the distraction the sudden bonfire provided to shift into a wolf while struggling with the now murderous Winter Mantel, which demanded blood of lowly, insolent creatures that dared to be in our way.

I was somehow able to convince it that we weren't running but instead advancing towards future victory against more worthy opponents.

I jumped onto the crowd, using the heads of the gathered people as jumping boards and get out of this depressingly familiar scenario. The shift preformed as intended, and I was able to escape the dumbfounded crowd with Toot-Toot, now mischievous giggling and spouting nonsense, riding on my back. I could have sworn I saw a lock of long, bright orange hair as I landed.

Running towards the edge of the village, approximately in the direction of the concentrated magic I've felt for as long as I'd been here, I encountered the last of the guards standing in between me and possible freedom.

With arrows and spears landing all around me and the guards taking a serious stance, Parkour wasn't really an option as my feet, now proportionally larger than before and not enjoying the protection of any defensive enchantments, would have been at risk.

"Rugh ra re!" I barked, mangling my own force spell almost beyond recognition.

Opposed to what many believe the actual language of spells isn't really important. Sure, I mostly use dog Latin or what might pass as Spanish for my spells, but my former apprentice, Molly used pseudo-Japanese to achieve the same effects. In short it didn't matter as much, the only important part was that the user shouldn't be that familiar with the language they employed, so as to avoid unfortunate incidents. It didn't even had to be a real tongue for the insulating effects to happen, as I have proven with mindless litanies a couple of times already.

The main component of any spell is conviction, and at the moment of the spell I very much wanted those guards to be out of the way.

The resulting wall of force hit the unlucky guards with the force of couple of angry NFL linebackers launching them out of my way under a joyful whoop of my rider.

Of course I could not do anything complicated while in wolf form as most of my mind was busy governing the connection between mind and body. I wouldn't be able to fire beams of liquid flames out of my mouth anytime soon due to the tight control said flames required but a diffuse force spell was well in the realms of possibilities.

With that last display of power I was back on the field, outpacing my pursuers who were still on foot and really hoping that third time would be the charm.

OoOoO

Say what you will about the inhabitants of this world but, they learn fast. Soon after I thought myself safe and sound, confident that I had left my pursuers to bite the dust, I heard numerous horses closing in to my position. I was thusly forced to resume my flight post haste with added trickery, which was difficult with the sparse vegetation.

It started with me shifting back into human form to shape an illusion spell under the sudden shouts of my pursuers

"Lumen, camerus, factum." Suddenly, four tall wizards were running for their lives in opposite directions eliciting more cries from the ever closing in riders.

Sure, I'd like the wolf form to get away from situation that go south like this. However the spell required me to concentrate too much and even then the Illusions I created were slightly see-through. Any normal human would be hard pressed to get away from enemies on horsebacks, seemingly making my chances dim indeed. I wasn't any normal human though, as Winter enabled me to push my body to its utmost limits and beyond. It suppressed pains that weren't life-threatening and some that were, it removed the limiters everyone had to avoid self-inflicted injuries.

This in combinations with my wizards healing factor meant that I could still train beyond the point where even the most tyrannical coach would have shown mercy and do so easily. During my exile on Demonreach I did parkour every day until I was tired. The speed I was able to reach would have forced me to donate gallons of urine to the authorities if I'd ever enter a competition. Combine that with my stamina, and I had to fear autopsy tables in area 51.

My point being, I knew how to run. And boy did I run, picking every stream, every obstacle in my way to aid my escape. After five minutes of mad dashing and a trio of horse unfriendly ditches I canceled the taxing illusionary constructs.

"Obscurata." Hiding behind nearby bushes I veiled myself in the hope that the crappy quality would be compensated for by my chlorofriend.

Also known as 'the random bush I was hiding behind' by those lacking the necessary education.

The sound of horses systematically closing in to my position destroyed the hope I still nursed of cleanly getting away. Less than two minutes had passed since I canceled my constructs and veiled myself.

In short they had a way to track me, and I was starting to get a clue as to what it was

"Toot-Toot, I need you to be my translator. If there's still any chance at all that I'm able to resolve this without bloodshed, I'm taking it." I whispered to the fairy as I stood up.

I was greeted by the sight of 5 horseman, four of them carrying a lantern with different sized candles and the last, the guard from the first village, a lit torch. He was deliberately moving the torch back and forth, carefully observing the change in freakiness.

I had been tracked by a fucking game of hot and cold.

Ambush them, kill them before they even get a clue what happened to them. Show them what it means when prey messes with the predator. Hamstring the clever one and slowly kill his comrades in front of his eyes. Leave him here, bleeding, and go back to take our prize. There were plenty of women in the right age for the taking with only little resistance.

With an enormous effort of will, I was able to push back Winter's consciousness, shattering the veil and making the torch flare with white flames and causing cracks in the glass plating of the lanterns.

Sturnn looked surprised for only a moment before rage and sorrow filled his eyes and he began shouting.

"Toot, a translation would be really helpful now. This is way beyond the covered course material." I urged my companion. "A summary would also be fine as long as I know what I'm dealing with here."

"Basically he accuses you of being an abomination in the eyes of what he calls 'the White Hawk'. Also, he says you're in league with the demons who killed his family and holds you responsible for the human sacrifices the village had to make." The lieutenant general relayed with increasingly troubled expression.

"Now he's saying that his comrades have gone through the same and that they seek retribution. We should really be going, boss." Toot-Toot continued "He told you just now that his name is Ignatz and that you should prepare to die."

The unexpected reference distracted me long enough to lower my guard just a bit.

The rider nearest to me saw it as an invitation to attack. The short lapse in concentration was plenty for Winter to come surging back to the forefront of my consciousness.

A small step to dodge the sloppy sword strike and a great stab to the armpit which severed the arm from the body later hell broke loose once again.

Simply wounding them will only let them die a slower, crueler death.

"Forzare!" I yelled, knocking the second rider from his horse while blocking a strike from the third one with my spear.

Sleeping spells would be a death sentence with the local fauna. You wouldn't want to be tainted even more, would you?

With a quick twisting motion, I stabbed that adversary in the leg, slicing through bone with Winter induced ease. The former guard fell to the ground with a sickening crunch, his leg dangling on a thin strip of tissue and skin.

The only warning I got before the dismounted Ignatz struck from behind was the sudden rush of air he exhaled while trying to cut me down. I interposed my left arm as to block the cut. The enchantments on my duster holding true, I proceeded to grab the blade, my hand coated in ice, and stabbed the horrified looking guard through the heart.

Pulling the spear out of the unfortunate guard, I used the butt end to cave in the eye socket of the victim of my force spell. With a wet popping sound and dry crack his fate was sealed as well.

The sound of a galloping horse reminded me of the last rider.

If he gets away, who knows how many he'll bring next time.

Thanks to the instructions of the Einherjar and personal experience I knew that it was foolish to try to only incapacitate enemies during mortal combat. However, I would not kill a fleeing enemy.

He'll teach his knowledge about how to track you to other fanatics and return in force after what he's seen. How do you plan to return with that opposing you?

I can mask my aura, I'll be too far away for him to find me again.

Do you want to risk it? What will you do during the night? What would happen when your Hero instincts kick in when your look is known to the world?

I'll deal with it. I will not kill a defenseless, fleeing kid.

What about Maggie? Will she be able to cope with losing her father for a second time?

I shifted into my wolf form and started pursuing my would-be killer. I caught up shortly after and a jump, a bite and a broken neck later another lifeless body hit the floor.

Returning to the sight of the battle I saw the previously wounded and forgotten men. The two guards I wounded earlier had gone into shock and judging to the amount of blood, and had bled out a short while ago.

"Boss, you know you did not have much choice." Toot-Toot began, trying to give a bit of solace.

"I know that." I replied, inviting him to sit on my shoulder "Now if only, I could actually convince myself…"

Shaking my head, I set course once again to the elusive place of concentrated magic and started walking with Toot on my shoulder.

OoOoO

After the adrenaline subsided and Winter went back to sleep in the darker parts of my mind, guilt and self-doubt remained.

It was the time that Toot-Toot reminded me why I needed friends I trusted. It's a lesson I needed to be reminded off time and time again.

When I started to lose myself in the blame game he resumed his role as a flying teacher and started distracting me with adorable sincerity. Of course I would never admit the last part to him.

Besides providing a much needed distraction, I knew that passing German for dummies by Professor Toot-Toot would lower the chances of a repeat of last time.

So it was hours later that I was able to laugh again at Toot-Toot's thinning patience, caused by my peerless wit, and general antics for which I blamed the world. The main thing that dampened my mood a bit was that his frequent cane strikes somehow started to hurt. I swear that's more than most of the baddies I fought managed to do since I've taken up the role as Winter Knight.

I also knew that he'd be there for me tomorrow morning when the youth I had been forced to kill came back to haunt my sleep with his buddies.

"There's a small town ahead along the edge of another forest, my liege." The pixie reported, returning from a bit of scouting and bringing me back to the present. We had decided that it would be best for us to know what was up ahead so I'd be able to get my suppression spell up and running in time in the case of flames and dairy products.

It wasn't like Toot-Toot volunteered just to escape because I still mangled the pronunciation while practicing in ways that broke the Geneva Conventions.

"Well done, lieutenant-general. I think it would be best if we head for it then." I replied, calming my mind in preparation of the suppression spell.

The forest in combination with the sun hanging low on the horizon would facilitate my escape when things went south.

See? Even I'm able to learn.

I really started to feel like this part of the universe truly hated my guts, so I thought preparing for an inevitable advance to future victory might be for the best. On top of preparing for the unavoidable, I was also suppressing any thought which could be used as an inspiration for the beings that governed these lands.

"At least try to avoid setting things on fire this time, Harry. It tends to build a certain amount of trust." Toot-Toot supplied in a tone which would have made Alan Rickman proud. His hair appeared to have shifted to a greasy black and his nose had grown a bit to reinforce the mental image.

Yesterday I would have been worried. Now I was only wondering whether I would suddenly find myself in dressed in red, gold and black while sporting a pointy head.

"It's not my fault they build everything out of flammable materials. You might even say I'm doing them a service by pointing out obvious safety hazards." I said simply radiating innocence and sincerity.

"Right, how stupid of me."

With that last grand show of confidence I adjusted my path to a collision course with civilization.

OoOoO

The village was much of the same as the last ones. Many wooden and clay structures with straw roofs. A wooden structure which was properly a church looming over the other buildings, a tavern with stables on the main road through the village and chimney of the local smithy in plain sight.

It reminded me of the mental images Billy conjured up on game night to the point of having to suppress the urge to use my barbarian's battle cry, 'enough talking!'

"Halt. State your business!" the guard demanded when I approached the village under his watchful gaze.

This was the main point of differences to the somewhat idyllic fantasy world our GM created. Instead of somewhat poor but friendly locals these people had a haunted quality to them. Cautious to the point of paranoia, clear signs of hunger on the faces of the people and weathered weapons formed an image of a people that were on the brink of giving up.

From what I've seen of this world I didn't really blame them. I only hoped that I didn't have to deal with people that sacrificed children to save their own sorry asses. I don't know what would happen then.

"I am zimple mercenary looking vor job." I answered hoping the simple lie would be believable enough.

To make persecuting me a bit more challenging we decided to smear my face with dirt, let my messy hair hang over it and also to make myself as small as possible without generating suspicion. Too bad I couldn't do too much about my particular clothing.

"Haha!" the man laughed, easing a bit of my tension. "That would explain the spear and your lack of company. Too bad you missed the great army of the White Hawk. They're finally obliterating the Kushan scourge from Midland." He added throwing around unfamiliar terms like they went out of style.

"Oh" I said sheepishly while rubbing my left calve with my right food.

It had to be said that Alice was an absolute miracle worker. Whatever she had done inside my noggin had enabled me to, with the help with ze Herrn Toot-Toot, to learn German to the point I was able to participate in simple conversations in less than two days. Sure the accent was atrocious and the grammar was worse still, but it did the job for now. The rest could be covered by miming the dumb brute everyone assumed me to be anyways. Playing dumb would also help dealing when confronted with stuff I didn't know as it was the case now.

"Not to worry you might be able to catch up before the cleansing begins. A lone person should be able to move much faster than a whole fucking army does." The guard continued, apparently invigorated with the thought of getting rid of those 'Kushans'.

"Speaking of which, why aren't you with a band of mercenaries?" He added, his well-practiced paranoia breaking the surface of his conscious.

"Zhey payed bad. I left." I supplied placating him once more.

I was considering if it would be overkill to fit in 'hodor' to reinforce my simple nature, when he stretched out his hand with a clear intend to be shaken.

"I'm Hans. My shift is about to end, so I could show you around. I can even tell you about the White Hawk. I've seen him in person and let me tell you he truly is the savior we all dreamed off." He added to the gesture looking like a disciple trying convert a stranger to his newly found Fate.

"Harry" I returned, grabbing his hand for a manly shake.

I might have said more but I had the bad luck of meeting a very civilized individual who had removed his glove before offering it.

As the skin of our hands touched I felt a tiny shock.

When practitioners make skin contact and thus come into direct contact with each other's aura we're able to feel their magical potential in form a shock proportional to said potential.

It appeared that he only had a very minor talent, barely noticeable.

I however conservatively ranked myself amongst the top 40 wizards back on earth in terms of raw power. And that was years ago without the Winter Mantle added.

Poor Hans dropped to the floor like a victim of a mean spirited Taser attack to the balls under the alarmed gasped of the gathered crowd.

I decided to risk my - lacking a better word –sanity and opened my Sight and Saw.

The Third Eye, True Sight, however you want to call it, it enabled skilled practitioners to See the world unfiltered and in such a profound way that made it literally unforgettable. With the Sight you could See things so beautiful it made everything else utterly disappointing or they would show you image of eldritch structures so horrible that a rough approximation could fray the sanity of anyone.

Those Sights stayed with you until the day you died, never fading, never losing their edge. I once Saw a Skinwalker from a distance and I am haunted by that particular vision to this very day. And those creatures are in the minimum security part of my shop of little horrors.

Wizards with enough common sense, thusly avoided using it too much.

The air practically turned opaque by the sheer density of sylphs, the earth writhed in with a steady rhythm of moving golems. I was somehow surrounded by lazily moving salamanders which tended to accumulate on flammable surfaces which disturbingly also included the people gathered.

After I was able to orientate myself once again I Saw the people and was shocked once more. Each and every one of the people gathered in the crowd had the aura of a small talent. The ones of the youths were a bit stronger than those of the elderly which was a sign of neglecting their given talent but every one of them seeping magic into the environment.

Another thing they all had in common was that no matter what, their spiritual self was scarred beyond believe. Some of the more haunted ones still displaying open wounds, maggots wriggling in and out of the flesh and creating an undulating mass. Others had chunks ripped out of their spiritual representation with putrid festering edges and infection spreading to healthy flesh. Most of them covered their metaphysical eyes with their hands, whereas some appeared to have ripped them out themselves, leaving black bloody holes where they were supposed to be.

Hans was one of the latter and he looked like he was feeding them to a nightmarish caricature of a white hawk. Said hawk looked at me with malice filled eyes with a bloody optical nerve still dangling from its beak.

The last thing I Saw before I forcefully shut my Sight was another common feature of the people gathered. Everyone had a choker around their necks, each fitted with three chains. One of them led straight into the earth, one of them reached into the heavens and the last one pointing in the direction of the magical hotspot I was heading to.

I started to back away when I opened my Third Eye, and I was still going strong in that regard. From the increasingly hostile looks on the faces of the villagers, I had to feeling that I would have to pull my vanishing act for a third time in three days, especially since I had every reason to believe that I had caused some milk to curdle during my short Sightseeing tour.

"Harry, this would be the right time to vamos." Toot-Toot said, agreeing with my initial assessment.

So once again I ran.

Luckily my mind was too much in turmoil over what I've Seen for Winter to establish its dominance. The villagers too were apparently too shocked about what happened to respond properly as they only started shouting when I was halfway to the forest.

I'd guess that it was only when I actually entered the forest that the first pursuers had started moving, but I didn't waited to confirm that.

Barreling through bushes, jumping over fallen trees and scratching my faces at low hanging branches I reached old, sturdy trees. Growing claws of ice and using my spear as an anchor I climbed the biggest one.

"Parkour!" I shouted jumping from branch to branch, from tree to tree, gathering more and more sylphs around me as I went.

As a reaction to my vocal reflexes I heard a shout from far behind. It was the reason I went for the canopy. I knew that I left a big a trail as a monster truck through a china store.

I knew I had to play one hell of a game of 'The Floor Is Lava' to get away cleanly in the very last light of the day. Of course, I saw a rapidly approaching patch of Dresden-incompatible trees shortly after realizing that.

Frantically thinking about what to do now I noticed the veritable swarm of Sylph I managed to attract during the flight added to my suddenly normalized aura.

Practically overwhelmed by their gentle, playful aura my mind came up with an incredibly stupid idea. So if nothing else, I at least now knew that 'Midland' didn't affect my mind much.

"I'm a leaf on the wind." I murmured nervously, forming a spell in my mind and reaching out to as many Sylphs as possible. "Watch how I soar!"

"Ventas servitas!"

And I took flight, very literally this time, with Toot-Toot whooping out of shear happiness besides me.

OoOoO

I tried to fly once. It was an attempt to make a flying broomstick and I barely avoided multiple broken bones and nearly killing myself. You see, controlled flight is simple in theory, but very difficult to

manage in practice, as you have to keep tracks of an ungodly number of parameters and forces. As a result few wizards try and far fewer succeed, with me being part of the lucky side of that statistics.

Here, however, I had the anthropomorphic representation of the element of air on my side. So my spell wasn't so much an actual spell and more a desperate, magically infused plea for help.

Specifically, I metaphysically asked the sylphs to bring me to a "safety" along the way towards the magical conglomeration which I was determined to reach now.

For the last minute it had worked out splendidly and I actually started enjoying this mode of transport, trying out different flying poses.

As I started to dip downward and home onto a meadow with a blackened structure in the middle I noticed a problem with my preferred Iron Man pose (holding arms outstretched in front of you was tiring). I was now hurtling towards the earth with breakneck speed face first guided by nearly massless beings. I started to suspect that said massless beings didn't have much of the same concerns regarding momentum as I did.

Straining, I managed to grasp my Staff with both hands and tuck myself into a ball around it.

"Forzare!" I shouted at the rapidly approaching ground, trying to decelerate my descent.

Tucking in even tighter I formed an elastic, spherical shield around me. The first impact rattled my teeth and bounced me twenty feet high.

The second bounce was only ten feet high, so I decided to cancel my uncomfortably hot shield and perform a stretched summersault and land on my feet. The plan was to roll was vetoed by the root tangling the foot of my already injured leg. The resulting flop sprained the ankle of the traitorous leg and left plenty of bruises over my arms with which I protected my head.

"You know what they say. The flying isn't the hard part, the landing however..." Toot-Toot commented on my feeble attempts at just that while lazily backstroking midair around my head. "But looking at the bright side, you're still alive, which is the first step towards improvement"

"Yeah I know, Gravity is a bitch. Also I think I'll pass on repeating this if possible." I responded, eliciting unsavory remarks from the Dewdrop Fairy.

They however were drowned out by a furious roar from a big, azure bear fifteen feet away from my impact crater. The thing had muscle to spear and it appeared that he had boney protrusions coming out of it underarms. Also it started to charge me.

Pulling out my trusty gun, I put 4 rounds in his head causing the lifeless body to do a less stylish impersonation of my own acrobatics earlier.

Big mean bear: 0

.50 caliber revolver: 1

Turning towards the bear's final resting place I was struck speechless as I was finally truly confronted by a scene straight out of Tolkien's works.

The meadow simply radiated the welcoming calm I've learned to associate with Golems. The meadow was covered in lush grass, covered with large constructs resembling the elemental golems, and the air was filled with fireflies. In the center of said meadow was a giant tree with an idyllic mansion grown into right into the branches. I was certain that no Elf could have done a better job of growing something like it.

It was all the more a pity that the meadow also appeared to have been attacked by Orcs. Even though the proportions and magnificence of the tree and mansion was still visible, much of it was only by their charred, skeletal remains. Many of the golems were smashed and everywhere I looked there were signs of battle.

In spite of all that the place still managed to beckon with a protective calmness.

"Toots how do you feel about bear meat?" I asked, having concluded that this place would do as well as, if not better than the potential alternatives.

"It isn't that good, to be honest. A bit too stringy and tough for my liking." Toot-toot answered "That said I'm willing to try this particular one while resuming my lessons. Anyways it would be best if you rested a bit and I feel like we won't get much unwanted visitors in this place."

Having received the permission of professor Toot-Toot, I dragged the carcass nearer to the tree and set up camp at the less burned part of the tree.

Some meat was eaten directly while some of it was dried with the hairdryer spell set on maximum. From a decent patch of its cleaned skin I made a rudimentary pack in which the dried meat was stored together with the impressive claws and canines of the beast.

They might be worth a bit of money and since I was lacking in that part I thought it might be worth a try.

As for the rest of the beast, I burned some and buried the rest. From my last experience it seemed that it pleased the Salamanders and Golems and there was no harm in getting some more allies in this crazy world.

While I was busy with my other chores and as soon as Toot-Toot finished his own share of bear meat, which was better than I thought, he resumed his role as teacher and we finished German for dummies.

As we finished with the introductory chapters of the follow up course; "Advanced" German for dense people, and we weren't attacked at all. Afterwards, feeling that it was as good a time as any, I decided to get some rest.

With a last thought of Maggie and a wish that the time dilatation of the Nevernever was working in my favor for once, I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

I chose to ignore the slight throbbing of the bite wound and the pain of the sprained ankle for the time being.

OoOoO

I woke up after a confusing night of sleep. Firstly nobody had tried to kill me, which was disturbingly strange. Secondly, my dreams were less haunted by the nameless youth I had to kill. Instead it was filled with images of a young girl with a wizard's hat. She appeared to be on a boat, accompanied by a group of people. Most of them I couldn't really make out, with one exception; a scarred young man, 6 foot 3 tall and build like a brick outhouse. He also seemed to be able to somehow carry around an enormous slab of iron whichcould be charitably called a sword, if you squinted hard enough. It didn't help that the image of the girl had occasionally had the image of Maggie superimposed over her, and that I knew with a questionable certainty that her name was Schierke.

Another surprise was that my bite wound had cleansed itself overnight from its previous festering state, and that the pain in my sprained ankle was reduced to a barely noticeable throb.

"Rise and shine! It's German learning time!" Toot-Toot shrieked with enough enthusiasm to condemn him to the special hell reserved for morning people, had he been mortal.

I stood up while he was harping on about something along the lines of the morning hour having gold in its mouth or some equally stupid German motivational saying.

After a bit of bear jerky for breakfast and batting down the craving for coffee a couple of times I once again belonged to the world of the living.

I took the shadow of a large and winged creature passing over us as a sign to move on, and thus we continued our trek.

While leaving the meadow I could have sworn I heard a faintest whisper in a sudden stirring of the wind.

"Tell Schierke Flora is so proud…" Is what I could have sworn I made out.

OoOoO

We reached the edge of the forest without encountering any problems, not counting my ongoing battle with the local language.

When we were just about to clear a crest of a hill just outside the forest Toot-Toot cried in alarm. I got a real good look of what appeared the same winged monster that made us move earlier this morning.

The reason for the good visibility was that he flew over our head less than 100 feet of the ground.

The red, winged creature had scales of differing sizes and forms covering his body. The talons of its hind legs gleamed with a poisonous sheen and its tail ended sideward spikes which meant that that appendage could probably also function as a bludgeoning tool. The front of the wings were also lined with sturdy looking spikes for good measure and out of its mouth trailed a trail of fire.

Having the luck of apparently not being spotted by the beastie I could only revel in the almost comical degree to which the thing appeared to be lethal.

That was until we really cleared the crest and I saw the town only a couple of hundred feet away.

Hell's Bells.

I was not going to risk everything only to be hunted by the townspeople for the fourth time. I was going to sneak past the whole deal, find a way home and…

The quiet was pierced by cry of pure primal fear which was picked up shouts of panic of others.

Too bad the first cry belonged to a farmer's daughter who was now running for her life towards the village.

Too bad the wyvern zeroed in on her and triggered my inner club-swinging, breast-thumping caveman into action.

"Change of plans. There's no fucking way I'm going to stand by and let that thing slaughter mortals in my sight" I snarled "Toot-Toot, I trust you'll have my back while I'm going to play with this Smaug wannabe."

Not waiting for an answer, I pointed Longinus towards the wyvern and charged.

Someday I'd get my Hero Syndrome sorted out and while I'm at it, I might even get the memo of gender equality through into my thick skull.

Today was not that day.

"Fuego!" I barked, using my righteous indignation as fuel and firing a finger thick beam of liquid inferno out of the point of the spear.

It hit the wyvern and of course simply splashed off its hide without doing much besides annoying it.

"Fuck"

The now-annoyed wyvern changed its direction and dove towards me, murder in its eyes.

**And we're done for this chapter. I hoped you enjoyed it.**

**In this chapter Dresden encountered the one of fundamental ideas which gave birth to this crossover. Some time ago I noticed that if you interpret Berserk!spell as highly optimized rituals out of the Dresden 'verse and couple it with the above idea, I could explain much of the weirdness and mechanisms of the Berserk 'verse without a need of any significant alterations.**

**Too clear things up: I see Schierke as a practitioner of low-mid raw power with a talent for communing, astral projection and illusions. Guts has a slightly higher base power and talent for kinetomancy, geomancy and biomancy. Guts uses his talent unconsciously because he truly believes he should be able to do the madness he does. The slight changes (if you want to call them that) needed to make this work is to interpret Schierke's spell to get the cadavers from the gallows as an intricate illusion. For flavor you could also imagine small flames starting to flicker when either of them gets _really_ close to them. The "magical background" of the environment is to highly charged for almost all the people in the Berserk 'verse to cause any aura related phenomenons the way Harry is causing them.  
**

**As always feedback in the form of reviews is highly appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

****Disclaimer****: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. Basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.****

****Again a huge shout out to the Heir of the Void for taking his time and editing this chapter.****

****That out of the way, I guess it's only fair for me to apologize for the unannounced and unexpected mini hiatus. Let's just say that the holidays and after that exams happened.****

****And now the chapter proper. Enjoy.****

I was really wishing I had discussed the art of dragon slaying more when I was over at Michael's. Sure he had Amoracchius at his side, but some of the tactics should have rubbed off on him. At the very least Hanna should have had the common decency to turn all imaginary mustache twirling _after_ enlightening me in techniques of avoiding toastification.

If I squinted hard enough I couldn't tell the difference between the flaming mass of muscle that was the salamander and this thing.

But alas. Here I was, standing on the top of a hill while a scaly wyvern dive bombed me, mouth opened in a grimace of unaltered rage and eyes glowing with hellfire.

Since my first instinct, burning it with lots and lots of fire, failed miserably, I chose to fall back to a new and improved plan B. I didn't really have enough time to form ice spells that would easily reach the terrible beastie and would be strong enough to achieve anything.

So with practiced ease I pulled out my trusty revolver and emptied it in the general area of his mouth.

A second later I had to drop said trusty revolver in favor of jumping to the side to dodge a pair of very powerful hind legs equipped with absurdly long talons.

As I went flying through the air toward an area devoid of roots that would try their best to make my limbs betray my cause, I was able to glance at the newly formed impact crater and its occupant. I count myself lucky that I did. While starting to angle myself for a roll I was able to see the rage filled eyes focusing in on me and the start of what only could be described as a large breath.

Knowing my fantasy lore, I didn't need more motivation than that to flip on my back and form a shield which could make rock wool envious. It was all the sadder that the wrathful wyvern cheated.

Instead of attacking me with a docile stream of liquid inferno able to cremate beings more resistant than me with ease, he shot a fire ball at me. To be fair the term 'fire ball' doesn't do that thing justice. The thing hit my shield with the force of an artillery shell. After the initial impact it revealed its second trick. The charge shattered upon my shield and revealed the napalm it was carrying. I count myself lucky that I was still air-born at the moment of impact.

Instead of severely exhausting me trying to block that blow, I merely streaked across the morning sky as a cursing, flaming comet.

"_Ventas servitas!"_ Once again I recruited the help of the elements, this asking them to slow me down before I hit anything along my path.

Hell's _freaking_ Bells. I decided there and then that I _really _didn't want to be hit by that if I had anything to say on the matter.

As I was careful with the wording of my request this time I safely landed on my feet in the middle of a field a mere couple hundred yards away from my starting point.

"Very nice landing, boss. Keep it up and you'll be flying around in no time!" Toot-Toot shouted over the thunderous claps of the wyvern taking flight once again. "That said I'll have to deduct points for inappropriate language."

The pixie had relocated together with me, probably to be better able to watch my back. When he had the time to make the two signs he was holding with a stern expression I would never know. I did know that I was content with a score of 9.0.

Gathering energy from the sudden influx of positivity, I reached deep into Winter and added a tiny amount of Soulfire to the spell I was forming.

"_Infriga_!"

By the time the angry wyvern had started its second attempt at dive bombing me a tennis ball sized orb of magically strengthened ice was floating at the tip of my staff. Having learned that fire and magic would mean little for big and ugly, I aimed to become a fair bit more physical. As soon as I could count the individual scales the orb had grown to bowling ball size.

I aimed.

"_Forzare!_" I shouted defiantly. My personal cannon ball shot forward with enough force to stagger me with the recoil.

My aim was true and the wyvern had no time to dodge. It was then that I learned that wyverns were more robust than mentally unstable Forest People. The Orb hit on of its claws, breaking of the murderous instrument, and continued only to shatter on his thorax, denting it a little.

To make my day even better, the wyvern didn't even show the common decency to at least deviate its course. Luckily the paranoid side that was me was prepared this time.

"_Forzare!_" I belted once more, pushing the talons aside and launching myself through its legs.

Rolling once upon landing on my chosen spot on the field, I turned to face the wyvern again. I was greeted by a predator who realized it wasn't facing an easy prey. The potential joy of that realization however, was drowned out by the realization that going primeval on its ass was probably the only way to win against the beast. I simply wouldn't have enough Soulfire to actually kill it if the damage my last attack did was any indication.

A barrage of fireballs coming my way in wedge formation abruptly ended my personal strategy session.

I dodged the first ball by side stepping, which put me right in the path of the second one. A shield, curved to lead the flying orb of napalm to the ground, took care of that one, albeit placing a considerable amount of strain on me. I let the third one fly by uncontested.

A burning sensation on my feet and the smell of burned leather reminded me once again of the predatory intelligence of my adversary. Instead of shooting straight at me, it aimed for the ground slightly behind me.

The burning I felt was actually napalm which had splashed on my duster and boots.

Not that I had much time to think about how I felt about that particular fact, as the wyvern didn't waste any time and started to rush me before the fire balls even landed. I was able to dodge the vicious bite that would have taken my head off and, letting Winter guide my actions, I managed to hit his outstretched neck with my spear.

Much to my surprise, my spear actually managed to bite a shallow wound into the creatures flesh, leaving a small, oozing wound. It appeared that the Longinus was much better in cutting up hard-shelled living beings than it was at breaking rocks.

By the time the tail swipe came that would have sent me flying into a hospital, I had made up my mind that to show the wyvern how we dealt with unruly lizards in Winter.

A quick shift into wolf form allowed me to dodge the strike that was now aimed to high as I charged the weight bearing leg. Changing back, I struck, plunging the blade deep into the leg, dousing me in hot blood and eliciting a growl from the massive beast I was now crouching under.

Said crouch also allowed the wyvern to get a glancing blow of me as he used his own momentum to swipe at me with his other leg. I count myself lucky that I had knocked out a talon earlier as the stub flew past, only inches from my face.

As soon as I landed I once again went into the offensive. Leaping at his exposed wing, I was intercepted by the head of the angry wyvern as he tried to bite me. The head of the wyvern worked wonders as a little stepping stone to get strike closer to the joint.

I sliced at the important looking joint as the wyvern realized what I wanted to do and it spread its wing with explosive force. The air pressure that movement generated alone would have been enough to send me flying over its back. All things considered, it was a fierce move that would've worked great if it wasn't for one thing.

"_Infriga forzare!_"

Flying upside down through the air I shot devious icicles infused with Soulfire at the fleshy membranes of the exposed wing. The icy daggers pierced the wing with ease as I completed the flip and landed with the ease of someone who invested far too much time in such things. The knowledge that the scene would have made John Woo proud did provide solace for the bruises it had caused.

I saw the trio of fireballs the Smaug wannabe shot at me coming, and I changed as the glowing orbs of doom provided excellent cover for a surprise. Dashing at the monster under the heat of the flying balls of napalm, intending to reverse the roles as this time _I_ rushed the wyvern. I reached its head as the wyvern was preparing to steamroll my previous position.

Suddenly changing back to my full height and back into its field of vision was enough of a surprise to allow me to poke the beast's right eyeball out. However the surprise wasn't big enough to allow me to pull back my arm out of the reach of its massive maw. Reflexes, ingrained into me by the Mantle, prevented the loss of my precious left arm as a thick layer of ice formed while teeth the size of short swords closed in.

Instead of shattering every bone in my arm through my enchanted duster the wyvern now had a thoroughly sore arm in his cut up mouth. The close-up look off its eyes filled with fiery carnage and bloody murder, in combination with the raking it started to do with its healthy claw was more than enough to provide motivation for a very strong shield to get me out of its clutches. It also reminded me of a spell I hadn't used. I pulled out my blasting rod at the same time as I started to channel energy through my shield bracelet and pushed it against it chin.

"_Fulminos!_" I belted as the shield wrenched free my arm from its clutches and encapsulated the rest of poor, squishy me. I also applied a bolt of lightning directly to its skull.

The resulting shout of utter rage was enough to once again launch me away again, further towards the village, and leaving my ears ringing even through my shield.

Rolling to a stop, I was greeted with the sight of my attacker taking the sky with flames gushing out of its maw as it fired a fireball, and readying more of the same. I was too late to completely dodge the splash of napalm and my back was drenched in fire. Casting aside my still burning duster, feeling very much naked, I had to dodge another fireball.

Another came without a pause after and I deflected it. Even though the shield held and redirected the projectile without breaking it, there was bad news in the form of it now flying into the village behind me and hitting a building. The next fireballs were met by a solid dome of a shield as I changed my tactic to completely blocking them instead of putting innocent lives at risk because of them.

After a veritable barrage of fire and force which lasted probably less than a minute but felt like half an eternity the barrage suddenly stopped. Looking up, I could see the wyvern chasing a silver streak that dipped towards the wings accompanied by small bursts of crimson.

Smirking at the usefulness of my underling I prepared my counterattack. My lightning spell had too short of a reach and was too imprecise to hit the wyvern without also hitting Toot.

No doubt the wyvern had taken air to distance itself from me and the Spear of Destiny. So it was simply a matter of bringing the party back to him.

Charging towards him with the shield still intact, I escaped the patch of still burning ground and shifted once again into wolf form. As I ran towards the monster's newly created blind side, sylphs started to gather, probably feeling what I wanted to do. Reaching the point beneath where the wyvern was angrily hovering on the spot which, I might add, looked like it shouldn't be possible in the first place, I jumped forward into the air.

"_Rugh ra re!_" I barked, creating a slow moving wall of force moving _towards_ me.

No doubt it was the help of the sylphs, but my force spell was solid enough to put many vanilla walls to shame. Planting all four paws on the surface and ignoring the weirdness of finding something substantial mid-air, I wall jump off of it and repeated the process.

After half a dozen more double jumps in the space of perhaps a dozen seconds, I was on the same height of the wyvern's head as it decided to change its tactic regarding dealing with the annoying pixie. It was simple bad luck for it that it decided to go fly.

With one last force spell I catapulted myself towards the wyvern's back. Changing back to my normal form mid-flight, I landed on its back and, angling all my momentum into the strike, I stabbed it at the root of its tail.

"_Arctis!_" I shouted, freezing the fleshy area around the blade until an area at least as far across as the base of the tail was frozen solid. It also made for a nice handhold on the now trashing wyvern.

"Hello my liege, nice meeting you up here on this nice, sunny morning!" I was greeted by a blood-covered Toot-Toot.

"Hello to you, too and thanks for the backup." I replied, the height hampering with my wit.

Enough talk.

"_Forzare!_" I roared, pushing past the building fatigue with sheer bloodlust, shattering the tail from within and detaching it from its owner.

The loss of the limb, in combination with the various holes and gashes in its wings, proved to be too much for the wyvern to handle, and it started to plummet back to earth, flailing and trashing. Jumping of its back, I threw the Spear of Destiny at its thorax as I fell away from it with all my strength…

"_Forzare!_"

…And then some, as I fired the spell off to give it some extra oomph.

The Spear embedded itself deeply in the back of the wyvern, clearly causing an inconvenient amount of internal damage.

Sure, my staff/spear combo was warded enough to reduce most stuff to greasy spots if someone or something came into contact with it for too long without permission. I, however, agreed with the mantle on a few topics. It was better to err on the side of caution.

Besides, overkill was indeed underrated.

"_Fulminos!_" I bellowed as I fired a bolt of lightning at the highly conductive, silver staff accelerating the 'kill' step of that particular process.

On my way down I saw the wyvern careening towards the some large and important-looking buildings.

A call of help aimed at the sylphs and a smooth landing later I was back on good old terra-firma.

I was already trying to come up with a plan to retrieve my staff and to convince myself and the Mantle to flee afterwards from the angry mob that would undoubtedly come after me when I was met with a surprise.

Yes, there was indeed a crowd of people coming towards me as it became clear that the wyvern was well and truly dead. The surprising part came from the fact that instead of branding pitchforks and torches these people were happily cheering as they ran towards me. That a priest led them was enough to baffle even Winter into silence.

"Hell's bells, just when I thought I had bizarro-world figured out, it throws this at me." I said to Toot-Toot, shaking my head in resignation.

Readying myself to meet this turn of events head on, I turned to face the threats of the German language head on, accompanied by the laughter of my lieutenant-general.

**OoOoO**

It takes a lot to make me keep my mouth shut. It has come to the point that I feel an obligation of cracking insightful comments while facing beings of phenomenal cosmic powers lest they feel underappreciated.

This one cheering crowd did the trick. I can even pinpoint the moment my mind simply quit. It was when I started to apologize for the property damage the fight caused to the important looking building in excellent German. It was one of the phrases I practiced extensively with _Herr Professor _Toot-Toot, alongside similar ones regarding, fire related damage, mysterious bouts of flash freezing, excessive staining due to bodily fluids, assuring ones innocence in the case of _not_ actually being caught in the act and so on.

The crowd simply responded by collectively bursting into laughter and assuring me that they wanted to renovate it anyways. I wish people back in my corner of the universe had this easy-going attitude.

Being herded into the village, the general focus started to shift away from thanking me for my actions to compensating the lost crops. That said, the villagers never lost hope, showcasing optimism in amounts that could rival even Michael. Hell, when we arrived in the village there were people actually thanking me for delivering that much meat in the center of the town.

Hell's bells, my paranoia started to rear its familiar head due to the sheer positivity and lack of pitchforks. I didn't really get too far as I was simply too busy keeping up with the multitude of conversations and idly wondering exactly _what_ wyvern tasted like.

"The flesh of the common wyvern is surprisingly good, much better than that of the bear I had yesterday. It's almost a cross of chicken and bacon." Answered Toot-Toot my unspoken question.

I choose to believe that he was answering one of his new-found admirers that were swarming everywhere instead of being forced to conclude that he had developed the ability of read my mind.

Then again, knowing my luck though on top of the other effects bizarro-world had on him, it was probably the latter.

"What seems to be the problem? Are your wounds smarting, or are there more troubles incoming?" The sudden question from the priest, who was still right beside me, startled me enough to almost break another building.

"Oh apologies, I didn't mean to startle you." The priest continued accompanied by some good hearted chuckles from the people in the vicinity. "You looked as deep in thought as the witch and the black swordsman right before the troll invasion a couple of months ago."

If this was indeed the second time they were saved by the power of magic, in such short of time no less, that would explain the more amicable reaction to the revelation of me being a big scary wizard.

"I see, you're still wearing the confused look of someone with plenty of unanswered questions. If you want I can try to answer some of them during the feast this afternoon." The priest added, offering his hand. "By the way, I'm Heinz. Once again, have my deepest gratitude for what you've done."

Seeing no harm in being friendly with the second cleric I liked, I shook the hand, remembering to keep my glove on.

"What feast?" I asked after letting go of the hand.

"We would never be able to conserve everything from that huge beast and it would be a waste to let it rot. Besides, it when would be a better time for a feast?" Heinz replied after a genuine laugh "Anyways I have to get going and organize my people and look what I can salvage from the church. Luckily they have a bit of practice in rebuilding by now."

And with that, Heinz walked off, discussing things with the surrounding villagers as he went, leaving both me and Toot-Toot dumbfounded.

I crash-landed a wyvern into the church and a couple of other buildings burned down due to the fight and _this_ was the extent of his reaction. And he's the priest in a world of anti-magic fanatics.

"You know Toot-Toot, when this is all over I'm going to see if I can get other people here. They could learn a lessons or two regarding being saved and showing gratitude for it, without letting silly things like property damage get in the way." I said to the gaping Pixie. "Also you might want to pick up that dropped jaw of yours, it's getting dirty."

"My liege, I think they don't really understand the error of giving you a carte blanche on that matter. Shall I try and rectify that error?" Answered the now saluting lieutenant-general with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"That's a negative. What we _are_ going to do is retrieve my spear, what remains of my duster and look how bad the wounds are before settling in for a feast and staying at least the night."

"Oh, well they're one encounter away of figuring it out themselves anyways" quipped the shrugging fairy as we too made our way to the church.

I choose not to grant that inaccurate remark any response.

By the time we reached the church, the villagers were already securing the remnants and discussing whether or not to move the carcass before stripping it. When they saw me approach I could hear a couple of cheers still. Most of them were already far too focused on getting on with their life to really do much more than nod and get out of my way. Then there were a few that looked at me with annoyed paranoia in their eyes while clutching their hands.

It was good to see that the spear had still enough juice in it to discourage theft, even after being imbedded in the wyvern for a considerable amount of time.

Talking about the wyvern, the sudden stop at the end of the fall hadn't been kind to him, in spite of any questionable cushioning the church had provided. The previously torn membranes of his wings were now entirely ripped into flabby shreds, which barely clung on to the bones. The stump that had been his tail was simply a mushy, irregular mass of - for a lack of a better word - flesh that remained now that it was defrosted.

The rest of his body didn't survive unscathed either, with its wings sticking out at odd angles and one leg pointing in a direction it had no business pointing at. However there weren't any signs that the fall had done much in the breaking bones department.

One interesting thing I noticed we humans had in common with fiery, flying lizards of legend was that internal organs were also at odds with too sudden accelerations. As to why I could tell: A clear spray of chunky organic slush was visible on both the front as the back of the terrible beasty. A third splatter zone was established near the gaping hole in his chest where my spear was still sticking out. He was a grim and stinking reminder Gravity's harsh nature. Having seen more gruesome things done to people deserving far better I made my way to yank my spear free.

And the reason I could suddenly determine his gender was simple. The sudden relaxation of muscles upon death had revealed an impressive additional appendage.

"See, Toot-Toot, this is the why I don't like flying." I said to my flying companion after a first and unsuccessful pull while pointing at the general scene.

"You regularly bad-mouth beings of cosmic powers and go head to head with them if need be and you're still struggling this much with the idea of flying? In a world where the avatars of the very elements are happy to do your bidding at a mere suggestion? I expected more of my liege the Winter Knight to be honest." Replied a confused looking pixie while lazily hovering on his back. I, in the meanwhile was yanking at my spear with ever increasing force.

"Well at least I can try to outrun beings if, no, _when_ I manage to piss them off. Not much choice with gravity, now is there? I really don't believe Arthur Dent with the whole simply missing the _whoa!_" I managed to retort before I slipped on the bloody shaft of the spear and landed on my back besides a shredded piece of what looked like heart.

I didn't even had to look to know who was laughing the hardest, especially since the spear was still snuggly imbedded in the wyvern's spine. Of course, I could see the humor in slapstick comedy I unwillingly provided, but at that moment I was too annoyed at the traitorous stick. I wasn't really helped by the fact that the Mantle had the same capacity for humor as a grumpy, old German.

"_Forzare!_" I snarled while standing up and making a pulling motion, finally dislodging the spear.

The resulting silence told me that, even though they are far more accepting of magic, they weren't used to it just yet.

"No worries, the wizard has everything under control" I announced in broken German, hoping it would take away the edge of the recent reminder.

"That only works when they don't know you. If they knew what your 'in control' means in regards to the nearby surroundings they'd probably started running already." Whispered Toot-Toot when we made our way out of the church eliciting a chuckle from me.

No point in denying the obvious, now is there?

Finding the remnants of my beloved duster wasn't really that hard. I simply had to look for a patch of thoroughly scorched earth and look near it. Sadly, I had to conclude that the duster was beyond repair, as I found it in a patch of blackened ground. The combination of the wyvern's corrosive poison and being bathed in liquid fire had proven to be too much for my trusty companion. The dry, cracked leather showed numerous holes and the plenty of the runes were destroyed, making it pretty much unwearable. Sure the duster was warded, but being repeatedly bathed in fire was beyond the protective enchantments.

The fire resisting wards were only designed to provide good protection for short amounts of time. It didn't make any sense to do more as even as it was the parts of me sticking out would have been very well done far before the duster was really damaged. Luckily I was still able to salvage some of the ammunition in the pocket furthest away from the fire.

Sitting down to mourn the passing of my beloved fashion statement and slipping out of my now stinking Star Wars shirt, I had the time to finally inspect my new war wounds.

Speckled across my scar-covered skin I could find numerous bruises of interesting and varying shapes and sizes, with the teeth marks on my arm probably taking the cake. It looked like multiple ribs were either bruised or broken and worryingly I saw that the back of my legs were burned badly enough for me to fear infections once again. Toot-Toot meanwhile reported that my back looked like much of the same while also observing some moderate burns.

It was enough to make me curse the side effect of the Winter Mantle once more. Sure, it was convenient to be able to train long after any normal human would have collapsed. Sure, it helped to be able to fight while ignoring the pain of broken bones, ripped muscles and other nasty wounds. The thing is that Butters had warned me about it, and without modern medicine for the next half millennia over here it was precisely what would get me killed.

"Am I getting to old for this shit, Toot-Toot? Can't they find someone else to melee monsters to death?" I complained to the hovering Pixie.

"Probably not, my liege. I don't think that anyone still alive is stupid enough to replace you." The lieutenant-general answered while innocently looking around while his hand provided shade.

Miming to be hurt I decided on my course of action.

"Thanks for your honesty. Anyways I hope you like it here because I think we will try to stay here for a while. I think my body would appreciate a bit of rest after slaying that Smaug wannabe and it would provide a chance to learn about this world in a less hostile environment. Besides I really want to exact symbolic vengeance upon that overgrown lizard for ex-duster by wearing its hide. On top of that I have to look for my revolver on the other side of the valley and find a way to somehow replace the ammunition I lost until now. 13 bullets probably won't get me very far."

The sincerity of the salute he gave me was somewhat undermined by the mischievous twinkling in his eyes. I simply hoped that the inhabitants of this town had enough humor not kick us out after the first week.

I might have to improve our odds by offering to teach a _defense against stuff that wants to eat you 101_.

OoOoO

After finding someone with a, for the time, working grasp of medicine and getting some kind of paste that he claimed was anti-inflammatory I went to look for some small odd-jobs I could do while waiting on the feast. No harm in nursing some more goodwill before asking for a temporary residence, I guess.

So after an afternoon helping with lifting and drying wyvern meat and generally being the ever helpful, awesome wizard I am, I sat down by a bonfire with some roasted meat of the day. I had half a mind set on asking Toot-Toot exactly how he knew what wyvern tasted like. The other half of me decided I didn't really needed to know that.

I was surrounded by a group of laughing acquaintances I made during the day of volunteering. Amongst them were the local blacksmith, a jolly bear of a man who graciously offered a place for me to stay, and the tanner, who was looking forward to working with the wyverns hide as much as I was. Both of them already showed plenty of interest in my equipment and I already did a bit of brainstorming with the leatherworker as to what we could do with our scaly friend.

Toot-Toot, meanwhile, amused himself with the young'uns of the town and appeared to be organizing a drunken pranking raid on the adults. I counted myself lucky that they were endeared by the pixie due to previous encounters with his kind. It also helped that Toot-Toot knew better than to bother people doing important looking things.

A sudden decrease in the chatter surrounding me announced the arrival of the Priest, Heinz.

"Please don't mind me, my dear friends, I only want to finally truly speak with the latest savior of Enoch." Heinz said to the crowd which caused a certain tension in them to ease and they resumed their feast with renewed vigor.

"You have to excuse them. As you know, judging on look on your face after the fight, the people around here are generally intolerant towards magic to say the least. And I, a priest of the Holy See, was amongst the more fanatic with my stance regarding magic." He continued as to answer my puzzled look on the crowd's reaction. "To be honest if you came half a year earlier I would have personally looked for dry wood for the pyre."

"That's when you were saved for the first time with magic, wasn't it?" I inquired.

"Yes, we were suddenly under siege of trolls. They pillaged our homes and stole our loved ones. After the second raid an elder of the village decided to look for the witch in the woods, who had helped him when he was a child. I might add that I was strongly against it, foolishly believing that the monsters were part of some divine punishment." Heinz told me, shaking his head for his perceived foolishness. "A day later he came back with the apprentice of the witch and a group of adventurers that happened to be visiting the witch at that time."

A loud crash of tables being overturned and chairs falling, followed by a gale of laughter caused tore the priest out of his story as he looked what caused it. The group of children running by, carrying pastry while apparently under the command of my lieutenant-general quickly answered that question.

"Your fairy friend does seem to be larger in both size as mischief potential as the two tagging along with them to be honest." Heinz continued smiling." But where were we? Right, the afternoon the day they came, we were indeed attacked by the trolls once more. The people fled into the church while the two man of the party kept the horde at bay. Well that isn't really correct. The two of them slaughtered them, the slender one ripping them into pieces from afar with while soaring through the skies and the black swordsman simply destroying them with swings of his massive sword. I don't really think that 'sword' does that thing justice. It was as tall as the man himself, the tallest person I've ever seen until today, and way too wide and thick to be really called anything else besides a big slab of iron."

The mentioning of the massive sword made me pay closer attention. I started to get a very good idea as to what the name was of the helpful witch and where I slept last night.

"But even with the two goliaths defending the church there were simply too many trolls and so some were able to slip in. I have never been as grateful to be proven wrong as on that day. In my blind zeal I had almost disturbed the spell that saved us all, only being barely stopped by one of the witch's comrades. Were it not for the beautiful, protective barrier she conjured, we would have been overrun and killed."

"And there wasn't any gusts of wind, oppressing atmosphere or anything inside the barrier?" I asked, interrupting the priest which earned me some annoyed remarks from the other listeners who had joined us during his story.

"No, nothing like that. The only thing I noticed was a feeling of safety and serenity. Why do you ask?"

"Just professional interest, but please continue."

The mentioning of the barrier was pretty much enough to decide to try and find this group even if it weren't for the dreams last night. Besides it was my only lead on the native magic community this far and thus the best chances of returning to Maggie.

"Anyways seeing that simply hiding wasn't enough, and because the black swordsman and the wind dancer were busy with an ogre and a kelpie respectively, the witch communed with the water spirit that lives in this hill. The resulting flood washed away the remaining trolls and the remains of the ogre and kelpie." Heinz continued his recount of the events on that faithful day and looked back at the remains of the church. "To be honest we only finished rebuilding everything last month. Don't try to apologize. We're still alive and that's all that matters. Besides we were actually thinking how to best incorporate a proper shrine for the water spirit in the church so some renovation had to be done anyways."

"Anyways, two of the witch's comrades were transported by the currents and subsequently captured by the retreating trolls. So after having shown that the magic isn't a tool of damnation and even showed parallels to the elemental Kings and the angels in the Holy script, the remaining members of the group simply went to the troll's very nest to save them. I don't know what exactly happened there as they didn't return, but they must have been successful because the following day some of our kidnapped loved ones return."

"Fuck." I murmured upon hearing that bit, causing a sudden tension in the group and an inquisitive look from Heinz. "A couple of days back I stumbled upon a nest myself." I explained my sudden outburst. "I didn't find any survivors, and even found some evidence of some sort of frenzy. Hearing what happened here, I'm starting to think that I was just barely too late."

Whatever the morose looking priest wanted to say was lost when a guard came running toward the fire shouting about incoming monstrosities and pointing in the general direction towards the woods.

"Looks like your first lesson starts earlier as expected, boss." Commented Toot-Toot, having suddenly appeared besides me. Even though he had been drinking all night long he, didn't show any signs of intoxication. That pixie had probably never had to endure a hangover in his entire long life in spite of his habits. Lucky little bastard.

Not that he really had to say anything. My old instincts rom my warden instructor days had kicked in in the company of friendly 'practitioners'.

"Children and those unable to fight barricade yourself inside the inn. Try to find silver knives and forks and if something happens, try defending yourself with that. I need a group of fighters to defend the Inn from the outside, the rest, grab your weapons, grab silverware, rope and sticks and come with me! Toot-Toot help patrol the village. Leave no monster alive!" I barked while running towards were the monsters were spotted.

The clamor I left in my wake told me enough people had heard what I said and knew that they'd listen. After been saved by wizards twice you tend to listen to the one that has some experience as a military instructor, even if the wizard in question has an atrocious accent.

I found the monsters, in this case a horde of what appeared to be vanilla walking dead with a few Ent rejects thrown into the mix for variety. They were approaching from the road leading down the valley and through the forest.

It looked that at least the inhabitants had geography on their side. Because of the valley there were only two main ways to attack the village from land, namely from up- and downhill. Because there was a decent river flowing through the middle of the valley and moderate terracing near the river (I flew over both earlier thanks to the wyvern cannonball express) there shouldn't much coming from that side.

Seeing as they were simply asking to be attacked all together I happily obliged.

"_Fuego!_" I yelled, dragging a beam of solid inferno through the group. The nasties in the first ten yards of the group were cleaved asunder by my attack and many beyond that still lost limbs or were set on fire. Surprising exactly nobody the smaller Ent mutants burned very well indeed, and plenty of them were set ablaze by the heat alone in the middle of the horde. The resulting panic slowed the advance of the horde from hell significantly.

I meanwhile started to really feel the exhaustion from the fight with the wyvern, the work I did after that all on top of the last few days. Knowing I couldn't keep throwing around magic like this all night I started to commune with the golems that were plentiful in this mountainous area.

"_Murus spicus!_"

Under my guidance and using much of the magic juice I had left the golems erected a three foot high wall with a spike-filled, shallow trench from the rocky wall of the mountain to the drop off of the slope containing the road.

I order the men who had guard duty that night to take places and defend the wall. Soon more and more people came with the supplies I asked for in the mad dash towards the invasion. With the few silver knives that had found we made makeshift spears, while I explained that these monsters seemed to fear it, making weapons containing silver very effective indeed. It was something Toot-Toot and I noticed during the fights the previous days. I guess the monster in this corner of the universe think they're fancy or something. There were also a few who brought bows and arrows. I'd had some cloth and tar and tar brought. The bowmen were ordered to focus on the Ent-like creatures with fire arrows to create chaos in the incoming blob.

Half an hour we were able to hold the horde back without much intervening from my side. The only magic I really had to use was a couple of fire spells to more or less clear out the trench and to give the fighters a breather. Besides that, I directed the defenses and coordinated the rotations at the wall to keep the fighters more or less fresh.

Sadly, this world had one more nasty trick up its sleeve. When I finally thought that we had it under control one of the fighters, a young men just that had just begun his shift, lost his head. He was hit by a familiar high pressured beam of water which also nicked an artery in the neck of the man standing next to him. The head rolled over the wall into the incoming horde while his lifeless body fell backwards in an ever-growing pool of slick blood.

Hell's bells, that came out of nowhere.

"Kelpie!" The unwounded fighter shouted, now standing beside an unoccupied post.

I sprinted towards the ducking fighters, readying my shield as I went. I was just in time to see the kelpie, a creature one part frog, one part horse and every part slimy, gather more and more undines around it. The bastard was just out of reach of the bows considering the lighting and battlefield conditions.

While cursing the surprising intellect of this newest tormenter I became keenly aware that I was the only one who was still standing upright and that my almost seven foot high, unusually unprotected profile made a good target for the next attack of the beast.

Even from the distance it was shooting from I felt a considerable pressure on my hastily activated shield. Too bad for the kelpie that it wasn't nearly enough to achieve anything meaningful against me.

"My turn. _Fuego!_" I belted

Another concentrated beam of fire shot out of my staff, roasting several of the now unimpededly advancing undead and chlorofiend juniors. It was met by the furious hissing of immense amounts of steam being created and the anguished screams of the monster surrounding the kelpie being broiled alive. I didn't wait until the steam cleared as once again the undines were gathering on the pained and furious command of the still living kelpie.

"_Infriga forzare!_"

The spike of freshly formed pike shot out, seeking to end the life of the slimy seapony. The icy lance even gained speed the closer it got to the kelpie resulting in the lifeless body of the beast being almost torn apart by the sheer force and rag dolling out of the steam cloud.

"That's right world. Only _I_ get to cheat here!" I shouted after the corpse.

The newly made soldiers and defenders of the village cheered to see the beast disappear and resumed their task of stabbing anything that came to close to the wall.

The fighting went on for two more hours in which I had to dispatch two more of those seaponies from hell whereby one of them came from the fields and caused multiple wounded. As the battle appeared to be over I ordered a guard rotation until dawn and simply collapsed against a house after as my accumulated fatigue finally became too much.

The next morning I learned that there were only a few stragglers that had to be fought in the hour after my body decided I had done enough. Apparently Toot-Toot had saved multiple people from undead during the fight and was hailed as a hero as well.

The next morning also brought the casualty report. A total of four people were killed, mostly by the sudden attacks of the kelpie, one of whom was the defender who had his artery nicked during the first encounter. Furthermore there were additional ten people injured to varying degrees, one of whom would be unable to fight in the near future due to now suddenly missing his good hand.

We found the broken skull of the first victim at a far edge of the slaughtering grounds, near a pair of eerily familiar, humanoid footprints. The cranium purposely broken to get to the brains inside and the rest of the flesh messily gnawed off.

One thing that really triggered my paranoia senses was that they only really attacked from the direction of the forest=. There wasn't a single monster sighting at the other end of the town. The villagers even told me that this was the first attack since the troll raids, let alone an attack of this size.

It was enough to give me a feeling of being followed. It also made me think that whatever was following me wanted me very much dead.

**OoOoO**

Guts woke up from the shock of ship suddenly being hit and the dull pain of his mark. Standing up and easing his muscles, stretching his scarred skin, he smirked and reached for his mechanical arm. It was about time something happened to break the monotony of sea travel.

Donning his armor, he heard a panicked scream from deck. This would prove to be a fine workout after finally recovering from his previous fight he decided. As long as he wouldn't let himself be set on fire – again – this should be just what he needed, he thought while picking up the Dragonslayer and starting his ascend above deck.

Halting shortly at the top of the stairs to assess what they were dealing with and wondering where the joke of pirate got the tentacles from, he sprang into action.

With a sprint that should be impossible in regular clothes, never mind in full armor and with a sword on his back, he reached the nearest group tentacle heads, busy devouring some hapless sailors. One swift swing of his sword later and three severed tentacles landed on deck.

"I'm hungry. So, are you gonna eat this?"

**And that's the end of this chapter. Not much else to say really, besides asking for feedback and reviews.**

**So please do leave feedback, perhaps even in from of a review. That would be really helpful and will be appreciated.**

**p.s. for those of you who like power/heavy metal, Battle Beast published a new album and seeing that they also very much like the Berserk universe it might be more relevant than one might think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.**

**Here it is chapter 5 of the story, the longest chapter as of yet. Sadly Heir of the Void hasn't been able to edit this chapter yet. I'll reupload this chapter when I get the edits. Expect some slightly wacky language and all that good stuff. It should be much better than my initial first chapter.**

**Speaking of the first chapter, I've decided to rewrite it and try to bring it to the current 'standard'. If you have the time, why not give it a try?**

**Also I've decided to co-post the stories over on Space Battles. They'll probably be published over there first in an unpolished form before hopefully posting the edited version on FF. The forum structure on SB also gives me to opportunity to interact with the readers and answer potential questions.**

**Finally Slan hasn't stopped her attempts to get Harry. There are more ways to inflict pain then simply attacking and failing. Grinding someone down with proxies for example.**

"Ready!" I shouted to the men and women bathed in flickering torchlight.

Two dozen defenders stood upon the newly improved Dresden's Wall and each had prepared a white-tipped arrow.

I myself was readying a spell in case of the upcoming experiment failed. I was very strongly opposed to the idea of becoming spider food and thus the instinct to 'burn it with fire' was going strong indeed.

Too bad there weren't more humanoid creatures amongst the attackers otherwise I'd have ordered to wait until the white of their eyes were visible. On the other hand, considering what should happen it might be for the best if the enemy were to be a bit farther away.

"Take aim!" I belted, into the eerily multicolored night.

The creaking of 24 straining bows answered my command, the faces of the defenders a determined grimace.

The last three nights had made fighters out of common villagers. After the second night I wanted to quietly leave as I had found my revolver and I didn't want more deaths because of me. That hadn't really worked out. Heinz was waiting at the pass-side exit with a group of accomplices and practically dragged my sorry ass back into the inn. The villagers had had enough of cowering in fear, losing loved ones to whatever creature decided they looked tasty. They begged me to make true of my offer and teach them how to screw the world right back.

Toot-Toot took their side as well, having grown fond of the younger members of the town and reminded me that I'd probably die without proper armor.

Thus I stayed and we trained, tinkered, learned and fought. What can I say? I've always been fond of the underdog who wants to use his free will to fuck destiny sideways.

A swarm of salamanders had gathered around me as the first demon spiders entered fully into the Technicolor light of the torches.

"Fire!" I bellowed as the legs of the second row assailers appeared.

An ominous twang, amplified by two dozen bows firing in unison, filled the air. A bellowing roar followed as a fire exploded where the arrows hit their mark, different explosions fusing together, forming a rolling wall of fire, driven by the hunger of thousands of suddenly unleashed salamanders.

I couldn't help but smile as a wave of heat hit me in the ensuing silence. The overwhelming success of my fire arrows confirmed plenty of theories about the corner of reality I was locked into.

Some volunteers and I had broken of some arrowhead shaped slivers of the wyvern's bones under the assumption that they were well attuned to the fire elementals governing a part of this reality. After finding the best way to overcome the sheer sturdiness of the bones I made it my duty to find out whether or not the usual runes worked in bizzaro-world.

Of course I used the Longinus to carve the arcane symbols into the hard remains of the fiery, winged lizard. Even if I wasn't a huge magic nerd (as Toot-Toot reminded me when he flew by) the thought of the amount of aneurisms the mundane usage of this holy relic was bound to conjure if seen by religious fanatics was enough to pull me through.

After plenty of tinkering accompanied by the shouting of drillmaster Toot-Toot, who was training people in the fine art of poking things with pointed sticks, I was able to present the arrow to local craftsmen.

The setup was decidedly simple: I had been able, partly because of me being a super genius, mostly because of the affinity of the material, to make arrowheads which were able to store ambient magic and elementals. The runes didn't need magic to imbue them with their magical properties the arrowheads simply had to be thrown into a fire and they'd trap salamanders by themselves, powering the whole arcane construct.

This meant that the villagers could start mass-producing them, were it not for a little problem. The triggering mechanism proved to be a bit of a challenge due to the variety of nasties who could potentially come to ruins everybody's day. This in turn meant that I had to make the triggers more general than I'd like, making them go off when they came in contact with strong enough dark magic, or warm bodily fluids.

I looked at the wide-eyed amazement evident in the defender's faces as they looked at the carnage they had created. I didn't think I had to remind them ever again to be extremely careful handling these things.

By now the maelstrom of salamanders surrounding me was dense enough to obscure my vision. Not wanting to be outdone by my own creation I started redirecting them towards the tip of my lance, willing them into a dense ball shape.

I took aim at the middle of the remaining horde, channeling the next part of my spell, drawing in sylphs along the way. As a final touch, I tapped into my very being and used a sliver of Soulfire to create a hollow sphere of pure force around the conglomerate of fire elementals.

"_Bola de fuego!_"

The gathered sylphs shot forth while I launched my fire ball with enough force to lift me off my feet, accelerating the ball of impending doom to even greater speeds.

Considering all the other stuff I'm able to do it almost looked innocent, that small sphere of bright light. Sure, it moved fast but so does almost everything in the weight-class I'm generally pitted against.

That illusion was shattered as the made impact with the ground behind the imp and the zombie it had easily punched through to get there. The night was transformed into day as the sphere of force shattered, creating an explosion to be proud of. Badly mangled and burning body parts of imps, demon spiders and some of the few remaining zombie classics flew around, landing in the rest of the enemy ranks and helping to spread the inferno that propagated from the blast zone.

Then came a shockwave, strong enough to knock some of the defenders of the wall. I dissolved the defensive bubble I thrown up around me before the shockwave hit us. I wanted to celebrate the success of this little experiment but it was cut short as some of the blown away defenders, now laying on their backs, started to shout.

"Watch out! Incoming from above!"

I looked up and was greeted by burning gore that was about to rain down upon us.

"_Ventas Servitas!_" I shouted, aiming to blow the bits and pieces of burning monster back onto the battle field.

The knee-jerk spell was put together too fast for me to consciously recruit any elementals so it was surprising to see how many sylphs went along with my spell, bolstering the sudden gale. I made a mental note to myself to examine the cause of that sometime soon. Either I started to attune to the new environment, enabling me to subconsciously use its resources, or this world started to pay attention to this simple wizard. I really preferred the former over the latter.

Even with the unsolicited help of the air elementals I wasn't able to deflect everything and two buildings were set on fire.

"Would it be seen as insensitive if I'd tell the villagers 'I told you so'?" Toot-Toot asked. It seemed that he just arrived from the other defensive front at the other side of the town and was now taking in the sight of newly created fires.

"Just a bit. But it looks like some of them did listen to you, Toot." I replied as I pointed out the water brigade that had just arrived and started to try and put out the fires. Way too quick to be mere coincidence.

"Returning to the reason why I'm here instead of the quiet front on the other side of town: what in all of Faerie was _that_?" My lieutenant-general demanded to know, directing my attention back to the sea of ever consuming flames.

There was _still_ bits of, now non-flaming, rubble raining down upon the battlefield. Hell's bells, this reminded me of why I choose to play a big, stompy barbarian while roleplaying. The damage calculation needed after that spell would be a pain.

"That would be my take on the good old fireball spell."

"Sweet. Ignoring the upcoming paranoia that this world is getting to you, would you at least give me the heads up the next time you try to nuke your way back home?" Toot-Toot requested, nervously surveying the damage. "It just might enable me to get out of the blast zone."

"If you're that concerned, just start running when salamanders start to gather around me" I recommended.

The Pixie slowly backed away in an overly dramatic fashion as a response so I added: "If you see _more _fire elementals flocking towards than normal. That's a good indication that I'm experimenting. If it give you any piece of mind, I could barely see through the swarm before casting fireball and I used Soulfire to make it happen. It won't become my standard."

With the Toot-Toot's paranoia downgraded to occasional nervous glances I made my way back to the wall and ordered regular rotations for the defenders at lower numbers. It would take something extremely fireproof to get through that inferno which didn't show any indications of weakening.

Having done that Toot and I made our way to the other end of the village and passing several patrols in the process.

There wouldn't be any big sneak attacks from the reinforced fields this night.

Compared to the killing grounds and giant barbecue that was the battlefield on the other side of town this was positively serene.

From what Toot-Toot told me, only a very few monsters had even been sighted coming from the mountains and fewer still actually attacked. Still, not wanting to let too much to chance I decided to get a status update on top of Toot's Wall.

My head wasn't even over the crenellations when the spotter shouted and the ground began to shake.

"JÖTUNN!"

The tremors increased in frequency as I flew up the last couple of steps to reach the top of the wall to greet the titanic attacker.

An athletically build giant was sprinting towards us, picking up speed as he came closer. Few arrows were shot and hit for all the good it did, barely penetrating its skin. When I saw him tugging in his chin and angling a shoulder forward I knew what the plan was and I knew I was too late.

"Get away from the Wall!" Was all the warning I could give while activating my shield bracelet before my section of wall exploded and I was thrown into the air.

Looking down on the jötunn, his shoulder encased in ice and protecting it from damage, I saw him trying to brake. Hard. No doubt to ravage the rest of the wall and its defenders.

"_Infriga!_" I clamored, freezing both the floor and my mind.

The giant slipped and fell on his back while I used the air elementals to land safely.

Just before I landed I was treated with the sickening crunches of bodies hitting solid earth and the wailing of children from the ruins of a house.

"_Infriga!_" I shouted once more as I began my furious charge towards the monster, fusing the ice on his shoulders with that on the ground and trapping him on his back.

The Jötunn was trying to counter the encroaching sheet of arctic ice with his innate ice magic. But it was too little, too slow. I blitzed him without even noticing the ice under my feet slashing at his soles, taking chunks out of his legs and puncturing blood vessels as I came close enough to jump on his trashing torso. I fitted my feet with spike of ice.

He threw a clumsy slap with the intent to crush me only to find out that my shield was sturdier than his internal organs. A spray of blood from his mouth hit me at the same time as I severed the offending hand from its arm.

Dragging my spear through his stomach I leisurely walked towards his head, he lifted his arm to wail at me with his stump.

"_Forzare!_" I said, much of the smoldering hate I felt after realizing the attack had killed those we tried to protect replaced by cold and calculating cruelty.

The elbow of the offending arm slammed into the ground with enough force to crack the pavement, shattering the joint and connecting bones.

The thrashing intensified and the Jötunn started to shout as dread overcame him.

"So you thought it would be fun to play a wrecking ball, didn't you?" I asked as I skewered the shoulder unmarred by ice and deliberately twisted the spear.

A slap delivered by a speeding Pixie made me aware of the cries for helps coming from the wall were an army of tried to overrun the villagers defending the breach.

Which in turn made me aware of Winter's influence over me, enabling me to push it back just enough. I hadn't had the time to really vent during the last three days as I was still recovering from the days before that mess. On top of that the attacks the nights before didn't really warranted to dip into the wells of Winter with the walls in place. It was something I needed to look after surviving the night. A relapse at the wrong moment would be potentially catastrophic.

An agonized groan reminded me of the cause of my current troubles. Looking at the mutilated mess I was standing on, a mess I created, I plunged the Spear of Destiny in the pitiful creature's head and ended his misery.

I moved to the breach to help and defend the village. I arrived as a wounded defender was dragged away from the carnage and the whole thing being at the brink of being overrun. I best bet as to why it hadn't up until this point was the silver flash cutting through the hordes of goblins, shambling undead and possessed, warped wildlife.

"Move!" I ordered. Sure it wasn't very precise and wasn't even particularly loud. It was however enough to get the meaning across and the townsmen vacated the breach.

I found out earlier that people tend to listen when you're pointing a stick of destruction in their general direction. It was even more effective than expected, after my recent episode.

The sudden lack of defending forces meant that the monsters on the other side were pushing and shoving to get through the gap in our defenses.

All things considered, it made one fine target.

"_Fuego!_" I roared, incinerating those who thought to capitalize on the sudden lack of obstacles. And those standing beside them. And those standing behind the lot of them, stopping only when it reached the sheer rock cliffs.

Magic is fueled by emotions, good or bad didn't matter. The anger at the sudden loss of lives of those I wanted to protect, the fierce pride of how easy it had been to take the cause of my troubles apart and the pang of shame and self-doubt that followed that particular plunge into Winter was potent fuel waiting to be tapped. Add that the ever-present dread of me dying and leaving Maggie behind without a father, _again_, and I was wielding enough oomph to subconsciously recruit the beings governing the very nature of this reality. Or at least their underlings.

I stepped towards through the gap to give the villagers time to re-organize under the command of Toot-Toot, lieutenant-general of the Za-lord guard. I knew I would there would be a price to pay the next day, but the price of not doing so would be one I would not be willing to pay.

It was time to do a bit of magical experimenting and flex my metaphysical muscles.

I started off with two more blast of liquid fire but this time with the napalm effect added to form a highway towards the breach, effectively funneling the enemy force into the hell I was about to create.

With Highway to Hell stuck in my head on repeat I went to town to the approaching horde. Icicles impaling rows of cannon fodder to each other were followed by blades of flame, ice and pressurized air, ripping apart goblins and demon spiders (and goblins on demon spiders). Tapping into the ever present golems in the mountains I created rippling waves of spikes, cleaning up the driveway and catching plenty of unlucky foes as well. I tried to focus on the elementals as to conserve energy, tried to recreate spells described to me by the townsmen, build upon the results and to test boundaries of contracting out the heavy lifting to these little guys. Of course there were still plenty of beams of liquid fire for variety's sake.

I only retreated after the chosen defenders had figured out their strategy and had taken their positions. By that time I had to hurry back to the other side of town to help defending the other wall. The biggest problem with that was dodging the patrols and injured while barreling down the streets in wolf form.

On the other side of town the lake of raging inferno had died down to occasional patches of smoldering earth and the spiders were redoubling their attack. They had already claimed one victim, probably having caught him by surprise. And thus I began a toned down version of version of my spell slinging routine from before.

It wasn't long before I was called once again to the other side of town. And then back again. During the night I had to keep rotating from one wall to the other. I was getting worn down enough that I began to take careful sips from the Winter. Just enough to be able to let me rationalize the death and suffering away without going full berserk.

I had the feeling that the enemies that had somehow missed the last couple of nights were thrown at us this night. Another thing that made my paranoia senses tingle was that they didn't really swarm us all at once, instead choosing for organized pushes that were somehow coordinated between the fronts.

I was having a very hard time trying to convince myself that there was no one out there to get me and that hypothetical entity somehow controlling everything nasty being absurd. I didn't help that I would've sworn to occasionally hear cackling when a new push started.

During the night I had been able to come up with a wind bomb by experimenting more with tiny amounts of Soulfire, sylphs and deliberate weak points in shell of force which ripped apart enemies around the impact zone with sharp winds.

At the end of the night a rock demon appeared, similar to the one armed one of my first night but without missing any limbs. There was little the villagers could do, even though someone had been able to nick its rocky armor. In an act of desperation she had asked the sylph for help and they answered to his call accelerating her arrow to high enough speeds to damage the rock demon. Exhaustion made her collapse after letting the arrow go. This meant of course I had to seriously start teaching magic and all the rules it brought with it.

I was able to defeat the rock demon after he had almost broken down the wall. The more spiritual townsmen were successful in their collective effort to contact the local water spirit for help, which in turn caused her (and I was pretty sure it was female) to provide me with enough water to repeat my water beam of doom. It did knock me off the wall which caused some more bruises and a bit of much needed laughter after I announced I was fine.

That night 26 people died. 17 of them were non-combatants in the house crushed with the rubble of the wall. Nine of them were children. As if that wasn't enough a dozen more or so were too injured to fight for the coming couple of days. We couldn't let another of these nights happen.

**OoOoO**

Rickert was standing amongst the swords on the hill. Every one of them forged by himself in remembrance of his fallen comrades. A pang of loss and grief, its bite lessened by the passage of time, went through him as he spotted the ones he made for Pippin and Judeau. Even after hearing what happened to them that faithful day and then seeing Griffith setting off with on Zodd the Immortal he couldn't bring himself to hate him. The story and its implications felt too weird, too unreal to be true. It was funny how someone as straightforward and pragmatic as Guts was able to know how he felt before he had even given it much thought and dammit, he had been right.

Shaking his head to try and shake off the sorrow and empty feeling Rickert shouldered his packed belongs and made his way to Godo's grave.

Erica was kneeling at her father's grave when Rickert arrived. No doubts saying her goodbyes to her father one last time before leaving. Rickert went to the girl and squeezed her shoulder in assurance. He too paid his last respects to his deceased mentor and adoptive father figure.

"Let's go, Erica. Trolls have been spotted moving in our direction" He softly told the girl. "It's also the chance to stun the world with Godo's craftsmanship."

Erica smiled a little at that last remark. The gesture almost masking the tear-stained sleeve and the red eyes. She was strong, probably stronger than Rickert, and her father's dead was long enough ago to enable her to cope with it. Permanently leaving, running away from the approaching menace, however was bound to stir her emotions and crack her veneer of unbound happiness.

"Yeah, let's show them who the real master is!" Erica shouted with just a bit too much energy, her happiness back in place.

Without a further word, they left, better armed with gadgets and contraptions than many could even imagine possible and made their way to the nearest settlement.

One thing Rickert had remained silent upon was the fact that they might be able to learn more about the events that happened during the eclipse and what had happened since in the world outside.

_I might even learn to hate Griffith yet_. He thought as he heard the cries of trolls in the distance.

**OoOoO**

I stood face to face with an enormous boar with muscles rolling closely under its hide. Its three foot long, jagged tusks looked sharp enough to make shish-kebab out of anything it encountered and at the moment he was testing the firmness of the ground while he looked into my eyes. Yes it was tall enough to be able to look _me _in the eyes while I was my almost seven foot human self.

I must have twitched or the monster boar simply had enough of the waiting game and decided it could take me out. It charged me with a squeal of rage.

I, in turn drew my loaded my monster revolver and shot it.

The bang of the shot was followed by a dry thump as the bullet penetrated the skull and an explosion as said skull exploded in a shower of bone and gore. The body of the charging beast came to a stop just in front of my feet.

I would never try do something that dramatic and cool on purpose of course.

"You do know that there are other schools of fighting besides the Indiana Jones' one?" Toot cautiously asked while looking at the results of the confrontation. "You can't keep shooting things if you don't feel like dealing with them."

"I've only done it twice since we entered this pocket dimension." I retorted, trying to defend my laziness. "Besides it was in the name of science!"

"Science you say? _Suuure._ Next you'll tell me you weren't itching to find an excuse to try your new bullets. Also I can't help to notice how you opted to go for exploding ammunition instead of giving it more penetration or electricity or…"

I watched as Toot was pacing mid-air while continuing his rant, wildly gesticulating. I wouldn't have been startled if I'd find a real puddle of liquid sarcasm forming underneath him. Not in this world, not anymore.

Besides I knew that people that who raised the insurance costs of property just by the virtue of being near them didn't really deserve the benefit of the doubt in these matters.

The bullet however, performed better than expected. It was something I had been able to create in the little down time I had between instructing people, helping fortifying the town and teaching the basics of magic, both my kind and the stuff I had learned during my stay here. The basic idea that a rune that triggered upon its destruction, heating the black powder enough to make it explode and launching the bullet. Said bullet also had runes on it that triggered after a high energy impact which caused it to release and recruit elementals bound to it. Of course my first instinct had been to make something that caused explosions. It came natural to me so sue me.

Toot-Toot did have a good point. Why limit yourself to exploding bullets if you're able to command the very elements.

"Now that you too had a chance to vent, let us think about a way to transport our spoils and return to the village." I suggested as I noticed that Toot-Toot's sarcasm had reached a momentary low.

"No reason to abandon such a fine boar. We'll have a fine roast indeed " He answered, smacking his lips. Somehow while blinking he had found a way to become rotund enough that his comically large, blue and white striped pants stayed right under his armpits together with a green belt.

I wondered whether it also came with super strength and if I needed to keep him away from magic potions while I thought of a solution of our transportation problem.

The answer, of course, was once again magic and so we walked out of the forest where I let Winter loose once a day following fourth night with the boar levitating inches above the ground thanks to the help of local sylphs. Making a wide berth around any dairy storing facility I dumped the spoils of our hunt on the town square. I felt a fleeting feeling of thanks coming from what I knew to be the 'body' of the Lady of the Deep Water.

I made my way to the smithy while exchanging greetings and answering questions from the villagers on the way. Once there I reported my findings and shared some ideas for different models. The smith was a man of few words, with too primitive tools to recreate my gun and too little innate magic to make the runes work. Despite that, he was still interested in what I brought to the table and I knew he listened as I recounted my experience and shared my thoughts as he was forging more equipment for the coming nights. I think he had hopes that he'd be able to make them in the future. The lack of tools would be remedied soon enough as, according to the villagers, more traders came to visit Enoch than ever before. I reckon that was because we had a monopoly in the monster parts business. It also meant that we were able to acquire more silver for weapons (and for some of my bullets) and general supplies. Even with the losses they sustained, the villagers allowed themselves to hope once more as they learned to fight and commerce returned to the village by their own work.

The smith would have to wait a bit longer for the magic aspect of his problem until some of the youngsters managed to cultivate their talents.

"You're sure you don't want steel armor?" The voice of the smith startled me out of my musings.

I tried not to show it but I could have sworn I saw a hint of a smile in the corner of his mouth. "Yes I'm sure. I can't tolerate cold iron under my skin and steel armor could potentially kill me when I transform. I'm already pushing my luck by pushing the little iron I have on me in the hairs. The last thing I and you for that matter, need is a big wolf going crazy because of unbearable pain without the option of changing back."

Remembering the clumsy, early attempts of the alpha's of getting out of their clothes as wolves I added. "The alternative would be a wolf trapped, sprawled in a cuirass and skirt and being miserable."

I was once again treated with a hint of a smirk as I went to visit the tanner.

I had to dodge a group of children chasing a makeshift ball, the horrors of the previous nights forgotten for just a moments, when I left the smithy.

"_Ventas servitas._" I whispered to make sylphs move the ball away from the children when they came close enough, at least for a little while. I was treated by cries of joy when they found out what happened and they redoubled their efforts.

Following my unmistakable scent of the tannery I arrived just in time for my dimensions to be measured.

"You know I was shocked when you told me exactly what you had in mind and how much leather it would take. Well it was also a case of having severely underestimated your enormous size good sir. But I digress, that wasn't even the only problem. I had no idea how the hide of the wyvern – that's how the beast was called, right? – would react on my usual way of doing things and I have to say I'm positively surprised of the incredible quality the leather has obtained. Truly everything I've worked with pales in comparison and…"

I started to zone out as the tanner went on to praise the material and no doubt praise me for delivering such fin material to him. He was a man who liked to talk and it almost seemed that he had the unwritten rule of compensating for the smith's lack of words. Or perhaps it worked the other way around. Regardless of the metaphysical constructs in play the tanner had me well and truly pinned while using different makeshift sleeves and needles. Iron needles. And so he ruthlessly took my incapability to make sudden movements without pissing off Winter as an opportunity to talk.

In his defense I would have been pretty exited myself by the stuff I could use the leather for if I weren't this tired.

I noticed the pause in the seemingly endless torrent of words, probably so he could catch his breath, and I took the opportunity to talk about possibly blending in.

"Franz, is there any way you could make me stand out less?" I'd even be prepared to forsake my beloved duster as a means to defend myself for the sake of not sticking out as a sour thumb. "Just make sure I'd be able to move around fairly unconstrained and it'd be golden."

"I hate to brake it to you, but even though I'm pretty handy with leather and armors, I'm no miracle worker. With your height you would stand out no matter what I did. Hell the ones that previously saved the village had the black swordsman whose height was enough to turn heads wherever he went. You are even taller than that and you'd be traveling alone without the protection of steel armor and only armed with a spear. And probably you'd be more or less unharmed."

He did bring up good points. If it was going to be like that I could just…

As if having read my mind Franz continued. "I'd even say fuck subtlety and use that so called duster of yours in addition to whatever we'll plan. If I did understand it correctly you possess the means to reinforce those items with magic so it'd be a waste not to use the material you provided to make a new one."

"I personally would suggest greaves, vambraces, helm and brigandine. I think we should leave out the pauldrons if you decide to double up with a duster as to not hinder full shoulder movement range. As for your beautiful thighs, I'd take the bigger plates of the beast to ensure their unmarred survival for future generations." Franz finished with a devious smile plastered across his face and I sighed as well as I could in my semi mummified position.

Someone, aka Toot-Toot, had told the villagers about my first contact with the locals and allusions to thighs and the beauty of said part of the human anatomy had been rampant ever since.

"But it is astounding how quickly you've learned our language. Only eight days ago we could barely understand you through the thick accent and feeble attempts at grammar. Now look at you. Barely a hint of your accent left. How do you it?" He asked, the sudden realization apparent.

"Magic." I simply answered before adding. "The plans for the armor sounds good enough."

"Alright then, now hold still while a do some additional measurements." And thus the sluice opened again and my torment resumed.

I had been able to 'convince' the villagers that I was from across the ocean and that that had been the reason for my general ignorance, different kind of magic and my troubles with the local language. Technically I had the feeling it was true enough, this place definitely having a European vibe, but I was sure nobody bought it. They were however content enough with the excuse to not dig deeper and put me under pressure. Generated goodwill tend to allow for a bit more respect for privacy I found out.

After finishing my duty as a sounding chamber, nodding at appropriate moments and interjecting once or twice, I went to the overlook the sparring. Following that I visited the magic armory where they were making the magic arrows in moderately large quantities. It transitioned nicely into me teaching some more lessons in magic and me hammering in the Laws of Magic.

It was the first thing I taught and I will keep parroting myself 'till the end of days if it meant less deaths by sudden loss of heads.

The general jovial behavior of the people was dampened and replaced by serious anticipation. The last few nights had been relatively quiet. No new deaths and only enough attackers to force us to keep up the full rotation and prevent us from resting. We had expected the seventh night to be similarly bad as the fourth one. I had been able to convince the Lady of the Deep Water to divert the river, displacing the source of it in such a way we had moats of filled with churning, freezing water. The Walls had been upgrade even more, repairing the damage done by the jötunn and more. The onslaught never came and so we dug in even deeper creating a fortress out of the town with draw bridges and everything.

You had to love magic for allowing such big scaled projects and the golems for actually enabling me doing it.

Today was the ninth day and there was a foreboding air of inevitability surrounding the defenders on the walls. Everyone had lost someone since the start of this siege and everyone standing here had survived through the ordeal. Their posture radiate a certain amount of pride and confidence. Everyone had at least one silver weapon and the archers had multiple enchanted arrows and not only the fire arrow ones either.

I knew that in a week or two they'd be able to defend themselves against almost every supernatural threat I had encounter in this world up until now. It wouldn't even surprise me if they'd be able to take out a wyvern if they managed to surprise it. Hell, they would even overwhelm it in a straight up fight thanks to their numbers and organization but it would cost them dearly.

I had also taken a chance and Soulgaze them earlier that day. Everyone's eyes were wide open. The body language radiated careful hope in the future. The damaged and worn down equipment was replaced by well cared for gear and there seemed to be more interaction between them and the elementals surrounding them. That last part was especially true for the kids. Another stark contrast was that the three chains were rapidly corroding, rust covering the parts that didn't have the slightest chinks in them.

The ranks startled at the same time I felt a pulse of repulsing, dark energy passing over the future battlefield.

"I guess you felt that as well Toot-Toot. Go to the other side of town and help the villagers over there. I have a _bad_ feeling about this." I said to my small comrade in arms.

"Even at a time like this you find a way to reference Star Wars. Appropriate time, it is not." He replied making his way to said front, his likeness having shifted once again to Yoda.

"Ok people, show time." I said, this time loud enough for everyone present to hear me. "Let's dance."

I readied myself and surveyed the killing grounds before us, prepared to analyze threats and coming up with plans how to deal with them.

Gazing into the murky darkness beyond the reach of the flickering torches I realized too late just how the source of dark magic was moving.

They were going to attack from the skies.

"Everyone look up they're trying to get us with flying monsters!" I shouted, mad at the way they cheated and circumvented the defenses that would have made the fourth night a triviality.

A swarm of huge demon bats, screeching harpies, gargoyles and giant mutated birds of prey descended down on the village.

Amidst them all was a familiar figure who managed to treat the fundamental force of gravity as an afterthought if even that. My stalker plummeted out of the sky not even bothering trying to slow herself.

She landed besides a group that patrolled the village and whose job it was to deal with threats like these. The archer of the group managed to fire off an arrow and actually hit her as the impact cracked the stone beneath. Sylphs were unleashed, trying to shred the being to pieces. Dreadlocks simply laughed elated as she simply let it happen and reformed the shredded body parts.

The town exploded with activity as the archers began to shoot down the more dangerous looking foes while spears were positioned around them to defend them from attackers. They would do fine even without my helps thanks once again to my paranoia and my insistence to practice anti-air formations. I started running towards my Stalker whishing my armor had been ready.

The magic of contained in the arrowhead had stopped and Dreadlocks licked her lips in delighted. She locked on to the offending archer and dashed at them with inhumane speed. Her razor sharp wings moved through the archer and the rest of the group without any visible resistance. They soundlessly fell apart and dropped to the floor in messy parts.

Since my line of fire was cleared I stopped and shot her with my modified ammunition. The hit her square in the chest and I was getting the awful feeling that see simply let herself be hit with whatever we threw at her. Enjoying the pain that came with it. The explosion took out a large part of her chest which seemed to surprise her. It didn't stick as she plunged her hand in one of the partial remains of her previous victims. The hole knitted itself together seemingly absorbing both flesh and integrating insects that came close. The undulating, crawling mass of bugs and gore was plainly visible until her fake skin covered it up. While she was regenerating I unloaded the rest of the mixed ammunition in my cylinder into her. One arm was eviscerated from the inside out, from one side rock spikes pushed through the skin. Her left leg was frozen solid and practically fused to the ground while the rest of her body was bathed in flames. A single clean hole penetrated her head, the inside smoldering with a faint flames.

It didn't matter. She started cackling while she cut of her frozen left leg and the fire chewed through her skin and killing the bugs. She grabbed the spikes radiating out of her and ripped the stony star out of her together with chunks of make pretend flesh. All the while she was regenerating with ever increasing speeds, the material needed seemingly moving towards her on their own accord. The only wound that had any lasting effect was my last bullet, a silver bullet. The hole in her head only knitting together with relative difficulty.

I started charging her once again, aiming to stab her repeatedly with the Longinus in the hope of doing some lasting damage. When I reached her I was unable to say how much of the bloodlust and hate I was feeling was my own and how much of it was Winter's.

She surprised my once again when she dodged my stab and grabbed my wrist with and iron deadlock, pulling me closer to her.

"I've told you before. You'll be mine" She whispered, her voice hoarse with lust. "I admire your creativity in inflicting pain, your bloodlust, your willingness to harm and destroy."

I cried out as she slashed my sides with the tips of her wings. A searing hot pain filled my mind and Winter recoiled. Whatever she was doing bypassed my dampened reception of pain and I felt how it damaged my very being.

Worse I knew that these wounds were not going to be lethal or even grave for that matter. She wanted to let me feel pain. She was going to torture me just because she loved causing pain as much as she loved receiving it. And I had shown a whole new spectrum of pain now and in our previous encounters.

"I have to thank you as well for your hard work creating the perfect environment for me to manifest. Killing everything I threw at you leaving there vengeful essence behind, supercharging the air with latent magic for me to feed on. I haven't been able to exercise this much power on earth for millennia. If you had let despair run a bit more and showed more of the darkness inside of you I would have been able to even cross over to this realm in truth."

I guess she thought I was getting distracted as a pair of new lines of continuous agony appeared above the older ones.

My right hand wander in my bag (It's a manly bag and not a purse, regardless of what Toot says) and found my blasting rod.

Pulling it out in one fluid motion I pointed it at the little miss gothic.

"_Fuego!_" I roared, mustering as much force behind it as I could with the blinding pain on my torso.

The beam took both her legs and melted the stone where it hit the ground. It was a shame that she didn't care as she sunk her overly large wings into the earth and used them as leg substitutes.

"Yes mortal, struggle more. I want to break you. I want to see you to fall into despair. I want you to worship me, Slan. I want you to be _mine_!"

She punctuated the last word by slamming my head in the ground and she mounted me once more, cradling me with newly formed legs. Two more cuts appeared, this time on my chest.

I had time too idly curse the fact that my enemies always wanted to bash my head before my inner caveman started ogling the supernatural sadomasochist.

Her hourglass figure was accented by a corset that reached to her full, round breast. The silky smoothness of her skin almost made me forget the horror that lied beneath. If you could ignore the leathery, black wings and the writhing flesh that was supposed to be hear she'd easily be in the same league as the white court vampires.

She produced a throaty laugh as she noticed my shift of focus. I blame the concussion and Winter for said shift. My hand started to rummage around my bag in the hope of finding anything that would get me out of this situation. She started grinding me with her perfect bubble ass, moistening the fabric of my tunic all the while she doling out more and more stripes of distilled pain on my legs.

The strange stone I picked up my first day in bizarro-world found my grasping hand. Its random features had rearranged themselves to form a cohesive face, its mouth moving in silence.

Slan leaned over so I could observe her perfect, crimson lips move and her lust filled eyes lock onto me.

"Summon the Godhand. Use the Behelit." She purred, her breast pressing against me while continuing to nick me at an ever increasing rate. "You could finally be your true self and walk this earth as a god amongst mere mortals. We could be together. Do it now while there are so many to sacrifice and give you power."

I pretended to consider it, not liking her implications about my true self on bit, while furiously trying to find my way out of this mess. Each idea I had was probably more stupid than the one before but I felt the hypothetical odds began to rise as my mind began to unravel.

I couldn't rely on Toot-Toot to save me as he was our only air support and essential at organizing our defenses. The villagers would be obliterated if they tried to help and I was sure that Slan knew of my Animorphs shtick.

Apparently I took too long to decide because she had pointed the tips of her wings at my eyes and was slowly moving them closer.

With the time having run out, being distracted by unimaginable pain and the concession messing up my thoughts I chose to do the stupid thing.

It had worked for me so far so no reason to change pace now. I reached deeply into winter and only used that feral energy to shift into wolf form.

I hadn't tested it before, I didn't how it would affect my psyche even when at the top of my mental game, never mind the state I was in now.

Surprisingly enough it somehow worked. I felt how I almost instantaneously became a wolf triple the usual size. My strength improved to a nine fold of my usual strength. I could feel a bitter cold radiating from my body and icy armor covering my fur.

My jaw was also right beside her head and I noticed she looked at me with almost childlike glee. I snapped my jaw shut, tearing away half of her skull in the process as she screamed in horror and my mouth was filled with revolting muck. She tried to get away but I this time I was the one who was in control. Reaching further before she could get away I ripped her wings off. They disintegrated as soon as they were detached from her main body.

She jumped up, her movements slowing down by the moment, and tried to get away as ice crystals appeared across her skin. Her movements became wooden in less than a second.

With her back to me I could see the dim flames dancing in the wounds I inflicted with my bites.

So at least now I knew where Longinus' essence went as I transformed. As that thought crossed my mind I noticed just how clear my thoughts were and how fast they were formed.

I was became aware of the Lady of the Deep Water sending undines and water to my aid and I knew what I had to do. I had to pin Slan in place quickly as the cold was spreading and would soon reach mortals who would perish in an instant.

I guided the water elementals and the water itself under Slan and formed my spell with a small amount of Soulfire. She had to stay put until I was able to finish her and I feared she would be able to regenerate her wing fast enough to cut herself free if I'd use regular ice.

"_Rexus mundus!_" I snarled, the words sounding surprisingly true coming out of the jaws of a giant wolf.

Spikes of ice, each reinforced with a tiny amount of Soulfire, sprouted out from underneath her, impaling her and lifting her frostbitten form into the air.

I forced myself back into human form, needing most of my remaining willpower to do so.

The ice would not be enough to get rid of her so I fell back to an old favorite of mine. Focusing on the pain I felt, and the white hot anger I put near everything of my remaining energy and infused it with probably too much Soulfire.

"_Pyrofuego!_" I declared.

A column of white blue holy fire burst from my staff. It hit Slan and simply obliterated every remaining speck of her. The ice that entrapped her exploded, being yanked into a gaseous state by the incredible heat. The explosion shattered windows and tore doors out of their frames while knocking me and many of the remaining flying monster to the ground.

I was glad that the Soulfire had been able to fold the thermal bloom back into the confines of the spell. I didn't want to think of the consequences of failing to do so.

"Next time if you try to recruit my for the evil league of evil, get a number and stand in line. _Bitch!_" I managed to mutter before falling unconscious on ice, in the middle of a battlefield and bleeding.

**Just to make things clear: Slan isn't dead.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.**

**With the help of the members of SB I was able to realize why I was getting tired writing the last battle of chapter 5. I was skimping over the all important world building and characterization that normally give conflict meaning. Also I wasn't explicit enough with certain information.**

**I tried to rectify it this chapter which meant leaping out of my comfort zone that had recently caught up with me. I do apologize for any awkward and/or wooden conversations, it'll get better over time.**

**Also I still haven't hear of the Heir so expect some linguistic weirdness.**

**Finally a heads up: the next couple of weeks will be very demanding IRL, so I don't know how much I'll be able to write on the story. Don't start panicking when the next update takes a bit longer to arrive.**

"Look who has finally woken up. What _do_ I have to do to keep you out of trouble?"

I groaned. I knew that voice. I was hurting all over and now that asshole wanted to talk to me.

I craned my neck to look for the source of my subconscious. I didn't really feel like standing up for the scolding that I was about to give me. The stone floor I was lying on was way too comfortable for that.

He entered the spotlight that illuminated my immediate surrounding with a predatory grace. The black duster he wore was perfectly tailored and in pristine condition. The grey jacket and pants screamed of film noir classiness.

He looked exactly like me, if I'd care enough for my looks and had embraced the power of the dark side. They had excellently trimmed goatees. It's probably a natural instinct for them or something.

What was interesting though, was what had changed since his last visit. His hair was just a bit wilder the lines on his face were a tiny bit sharper. The ice blue snowflake he had pinned in his jacket since I became the Winter Knight had grown larger and more intricate. And then there was the wolfish grin I could have sworn to have seen flashing over his face.

He reached what best could be described as a distance optimal for polite conversation and pulled a large, black leather chair from nowhere. He seated himself in a well-practiced movement and swiveled the chair to fully face the comfortably sprawled me.

"Where did you get that…" I began before being shut up by the tired sigh of asshole me.

Right my mind my rules. If Toot-Toot could somehow materialize random objects in bizarro-world I should be able to do the same in my own mindscape.

"Don't try to blame your wounds, you've had worse and they don't make you significantly denser than usually. Besides the real fun will start when you wake up." My subconscious told me, unable to keep the smugness out of his voice.

"What do I owe the _pleasure _of this sudden visit?" I asked, sarcasm dripping from my words.

I began the process of standing up as he wanted to retort. It was a long process with lots of stretching and complaining about the dozens of painful cuts that Dreadlocks had inflicted.

He wasn't really protesting much besides slightly shaking his head in exasperated. Good that meant that I wasn't in danger of being rudely awakened anytime soon or even better. His message would still be important otherwise he wouldn't bother to show up and let me irritate him even more.

Taking advantage of that, I took my time to visualize the comfiest chair I could imagine and settled in. I had materialized the chair at such an angle that the other me had to move his chair to have the coming conversation face to face.

Me petty? Never.

"You're all done?" I held up my hand to stop him and materialized a burger from the king of burgers and an ice cold coke. With a sigh of relieve I took my first bite of 'real' food since weeks.

It tasted as good as I imagined.

"How are we still alive?" My double muttered before continuing, louder. "The reason for me volunteering to deal with you, is to ask you what you want to do about the Slan situation."

"Slan? Oh you mean Dreadlocks. I was thinking of changing into the bigger wolf and rip her a new one if she showed up again." I responded jokingly. I would rather like to believe I had dealt with that horror on a more permanent basis. Knowing my luck I had only managed to piss off a deity with semi cosmic powers enough that she redoubled her recruitment efforts. I couldn't give them a different treatment only because they had the bad luck of governing a different dimension.

"Even though I have to applaud you for that particular brand of ruthlessness, you might want to reconsider. For one, four people have frostbite of varying degrees of severity because of that aura of cold."

I could feel my heart sink. I could be unnerved by unconscious all I wanted, but as part of my cognitive filter he tended to bring up points that weren't important in the heat of battle.

"On top of that, Winter really liked what you've done and became clingier because of it. Don't worry, I'm keeping it at bay for the moment, so your thoughts should be relatively clear right now. That said, I would steer clear of group related fights for the coming days."

"Oh." I said, not feeling particular witty at the moment. "Those people, are they going to be alright?"

"How should I know? You've been out for two days and you've only threw quick glances around during the battle. From what you've seen, at least someone might have to miss a leg."

_Hell's Bells_, I had to think really hard about doing that again. That aura didn't feel like anything I could control.

"At least they're still alive." I tried, weakly.

"Only because you had the common sense to order them to stay away from you during a fight you weren't easily winning."

"She would have killed them, when she'd noticed that pain wouldn't get me to join anything anytime soon."

"Of course, _I _would have done so if I were in her position. I'd have done it in increasingly creative fashion, seeing as she mentioned the need of sacrifices for the initiation."

"And you still wonder, why I dislike you?"

My ID groaned and massaged his head. "When are you going to accept that I'm you? I'm more a part of you than the Winter Mantle and look on who you're accepting more easily."

"Bite me." I retorted and stuck out my tongue.

I might not have admitted it to myself, I don't think I needed to anyways, but the side that my unconscious represented scared me. Even after all that time I still felt the pull of black magic. I was scared of what I'd be able to do if I gave in and grew a goatee myself.

It wasn't that difficult to imagine, one only had to look what happened to the villagers that pursued me on the second day. If the fact that I had been unconscious for two days already was any indication, the attacks had lessened to a point where they didn't need to wake me. That would mean that I'd have more time for idle thought. I had the feeling that those five would come back to haunt my immediate future.

"The fact remains that you just threw away a potential trump over an avatar. Even if you decided to use that form again, I doubt it would work a second time the way she was manhandling you like an uppity pixie before that gamble."

No reason to deny that. She wasn't even fully powered in that form.

I shuddered at that particular thought.

"I think it would be best if I'd avoided her all together." I said to myself

"In that we agree. What do you think enables her to follow you?"

He knew already of course. The smug bastard would dangle the knowledge in front of me until my answer came close enough.

It's probably karma meting out retribution for indulging in wizard crack one too many times.

"My first instinct is to say she followed the trail of destruction but that wouldn't explain how she had been to track us to the other side of the forest. Doubly so since she seems to be a nocturnal fiend..." I began. "No, a better explanation would be if she had some kind of magic-dar."

My double leaned forward at that and I could even see a glimmer of hope go through him. If listening more to him it would probably be my death. I'm already too annoying to too many powerful creatures without a healthy dose of smugness.

His relieve didn't last long though. A tremor went through the space and the spotlight swayed.

"Stars and stones. Why is it that every time we talk someone interrupts us." The other me said, probably kicking himself that he had given me as much time as he did.

I didn't really mind. That burger was exactly what I needed, emotionally. I may or may not have even tried to will a golden paper crown on my ID's head during the whole affair.

"Magic is probably one of the things she's able to track and you're emitting insane amounts of it into the atmosphere. She might also be able to feel Winter and…" He was talking faster and faster now. Also he started to sound more disjointed as if our connection got worse.

"Absorb… energy… Lady… _FUCK!_"

With that last expletive I opened my eyes into a world of pain and was greeted by a relieved looking Lieutenant-General hovering over my head.

"Good morning Toot. Please don't go all teary eyed on me." I mumbled.

"You don't pay me enough to put up with this." He answered, not quite succeeding in looking indignant. "We came in after someone heard you trashing and muttering. What happened?"

"Nothing major. I simply had a more or less pleasant conversation with myself." I considered mentioning the food before deciding against it. It would have felt like kicking a puppy.

Toot-Toot might have said more but I wasn't able to hear it. My world exploded in pain as I was tackled by Erich with a warm hug.

The little tyke was one of my younger magic students and had a strong affinity with the sylphs. His mother, Elisabeth, had been the archer that unleashed the magic assisted arrow that managed to chip the skin of the rock demon. It seemed that there might be a hereditary component at play in regards to magical specialties.

With his father, Alfred, being something like the town's doctor and two magically gifted people under one roof, I was bound to visited them often enough to get to know the Hartmanns personally. Somewhere along the line Erich adopted me as a favorite uncle.

It might also had something to do with the fact that Erich was rather interested in the farmer's daughter who was the reason of my recent wyvern slayer title. Not that he would admit being interested in something as gross as a girl.

"Will you be teaching us magic again, Harry?" The nine year old asked me, eyes wide enough to shame any puppy.

The day before the battle with Slan he had confided that he was jealous of the Toot-Toot because of his ability to fly. Judging the way his steps had become lighter since starting the lessons and the amount of sylphs that were flocking around him it wasn't difficult to guess why he was so eager to resume with them once more.

I might want to think of keeping Erich and Toot in separate rooms for the time being. Toot's passion for flying might give the kid stupid ideas.

"Erich let go of Harry." Elisabeth had appeared in the doorframe and chastised the enthusiastic boy a bit.

I could feel the pain of my wounds lessen as the pressure in them disappeared.

"Don't be too hard on him, Lise. I was planning to get up anyways." I said, pacifying her and eliciting an exited yelp of Erich.

"Two days of sleep are more than enough anyways." I continued, watching Erich go at his mother's place, his steps too floaty to be natural.

A length of sturdy length of rope might be needed to keep him from simply floating away in the near future.

"How did you know it has been two days? I haven't heard you talk about it." Lise asked, confusion and shock intermingling.

"Wizard." I simply answered with a shit eating grin plastered across my face.

Even if it would meant more vagueness from my unconsciousness, you can't simply quit crack.

I shooed my visitors out and got ready. I had a lot to do.

**OoOoO**

I entered the circle flanked by pristine looking standing stones and was greeted by the rippling form of the resident guardian spirit.

Here translucent hair framed her elven face and flowed across her shoulders. Her hair as well as the rest of her body wasn't fixed, instead choosing to be ever changing and effortlessly stream from one form into the next. The only really constant factor was her undeniable beauty and the motherly gentleness she radiated.

I was certain that her warmness would change to cold, torrential hatred if I were to purposely harm the villagers who she was sworn to protect and who were once again actively worshipping her. I could see the signs of their love towards her and her protectiveness. Her spiritual shrine appeared to have grown ever so slightly compared to the last time I visited her to beseech her to redirect some streams to reinforce the defenses.

The Lady of the Deep Water's regal demeanor momentarily broke with the slightest hint of a smile. "Sir Knight. What do I owe this visit?"

_Kill her! Devour her! Show this sorry excuse for a dimension what real power is and blow your way out. These fuckers dared to harm you and…_

I purposefully massaged my spectral temples. Not long after my meal that came with the annoyance that was my subconscious, I've had some persistent troubles with Winter. I'd reckon it was barely getting started with its rage against the system. It was getting more eloquent as time passed. At least the serenity that surrounded the Lady of the Deep Water helped to push Winter back far enough to prevent acts of spontaneous combustion.

It was a slight gamble when I decided to devote much of today's lesson to meditation and imagining exercises. It wasn't a very popular decision and my padawans had let their opinion known, much to the chagrin of the Mantle. Their complaints had me unconsciously gather enough salamanders that a startle would have sent the building ablaze instead of me simply strangling the perpetrator.

I needed some time 'away' from people to try and wrestle Winter into submission for long enough to last until I could hunt. Besides I had the feelings that my students would need to have to communicate with spirits somewhere in the future. From the description of Schierke's spell it seemed that the people here depended more on some sort of ritualistic evocations in battle. If that was indeed the case, it would be necessary that they have a good idea as to who they were.

I heard a small murmur trickling through my connection with reality like a distant echo. I hoped that Erich hadn't flown off or that Jenna hadn't set something on fire as I continued to convince Winter that killing and raping wasn't a viable solution.

"What's wrong Knight? You seemed troubled." The Lady asked, her forms growing the slightest bit more intimidating. "If you don't try to be witty anytime soon I might start to worry."

"Are you shore about that? The conversation might become very shallow if I try to:" The sigh that this semi divine spirit let loose was enough to renew my some of my energy.

"Don't push your luck though. It would be a shame if you were to drown before finishing teaching those I am sworn to protect. Am I clear?"

_Rush her! Teach her the price of her insolence! Grab her hair and freeze it and force her to submit to you and…_

"Translucently." I answered, shaking my head in an attempt to dispel the red mist that was building up. "And don't worry too much about me. I'm currently dealing with a persistent voice in my head. I've had similar problems before and survived it and will do so again."

Somehow she didn't relax after that, but I had stuff to do so I continued talking. "But coming to the reason I came to visit you, my Lady. I wanted to thank you for your help during the battle against Slant and on top of that, another voice has told me you could help preventing her from reappearing. From what I understand, you and your undines seem to like absorbing magic energies, is that correct?"

It was a bit of a hunch, but it seemed that each of the elementals could be divided into one of two specialties. When talking energies, sylphs and salamanders were more oriented towards thermal energy with sylphs taking it from objects when given the chance and the salamanders pumping it out when coming in contact with a suitable source. Undines and golems appeared to behave similarly but on the magical side of things. It was probably the reason why at least here water sapped the strength of wizards and why I was able to throw so much magic around the first day in bizarro-world, especially earth magic.

"It is a bit of an oversimplification but it is correct enough."

"Good. If that's the case I would like to formally invite you to feast on the residual magical energy we leave after battle and practice if you try to spare the enchanted equipment we're making." I proposed. I wasn't really sure if I'd get a scolding from my subconscious, but going off my instinct and the little information he was able to give I felt this was at least in the right direction.

"We might be able to do that but why would you…" The Lady seemed puzzled for just a moment before continuing. "Yes, it would make this village difficult to find for Slant and her ilk, especially since the townsmen are hunting the remainders of monster army that didn't simply wandered off after you scattered her avatar. I could manage a having a fine mist coming through the village to cleanse the air of above average magical energies after practice and battles."

There were _more_ of those psychopathic nightmares. Why was I getting the dreadful feeling that I was going to meet them some way or the other?

"I think that should be a small price to pay to remain relatively undetected by further cosmic horrors and I don't think they'd have to worry too much about this Slant when I move along. She seemed to be fixated on me to say the least. Talking about my own safety, how big is your reach, my Lady? Would you be possible to bring my aura to a normal level?"

"My reach doesn't go beyond the mountain range and even outside the immediate area of the village I'm limited as to what I can do. Besides, unless you're constantly standing directly in running water or swarmed by thousands of undines I don't think your aura couldn't be reduced to that of an average man. Not unless your skin is pierced."

Upon hearing her reply, I had the image of a spiky bracelet flash in depressing clarity and detail pushed to the front of my consciousness. "If you're able to have undines recruit others and not make me wet outside your influence after given said orders, I might have a potential solution."

"Yes, that would be possible. If it works, it would also make you very beloved by our kind wherever you go. It would be a true feast for us." The Lady of the Deep Water answered, her excitement shimmering through her many shifting forms.

I wanted to bid my leave but was interrupted. "Before you go, please do reveal how you're so at ease being in your spectral form and how it's this solid. The witch that summoned me previously certainly had enough talent to make a compelling argument and directing my fury. However her spectral image was positively ethereal compared to yours."

"I've been dead a couple of times, or at least close enough that it matters. After that, spectral projecting isn't really that difficult." I shrugged. I hadn't really noticed it, or had even thought about it over in my home dimension. Partly because I didn't see the usage of this thing in my regular line of work of almost getting killed by some sort of nasty or during training how to avoid said fate. Also I had the feeling that it would be a very bad idea in general. At least here there was a fair chance you'd come face to face with something that was benevolent, or at the very least something that didn't really care about you. Doing spectral projection at home, especially at unsecured places, would probably be a surefire way to get your face gnawed off.

After hearing the stories of the main entity apparently helping the witch saving the village and being seen as a guardian spirit of the place, I had decided to try my luck and do a bit of experimenting here on that front. Also, I had been pretty desperate to bolster our defenses after what happened the fourth night.

"If any mortal, except perhaps one or two others, had said the same I'd probably prevented their return due to their utter lunacy. With you, I get the feeling it's probably true. It wouldn't be that strange, considering you're not from around." She replied, more or less unphased, and her look became a bit distant for just a moment. "You might want to return to your body. I feel salamanders rapidly gathering."

I could also smell the faint but familiar stench of a burning wood coming through my connection. I bowed, bit the Lady farewell and ghost-jumped my way to the metaphorical exit.

I could have sworn that I to have seen a glimpse Ignaz along the way.

I opened my eyes and was greeted by the sight of Jenna's part of the table happily smoldering away. I reached out towards the fire with my will and scattered the salamanders and stored the heat in the Longinus for future use. Said salamanders then collected around me, weirdly enough.

_You're too soft. A little push and you'd have a personal army of talents who'd be willing to do everything for you. Those fools on the Council wouldn't be able to touch you with them and Winter backing you._

I slammed my hands on the table in an attempt to silence winter startling everyone in the room. The sudden movement caused the numerous injuries to flare up in pain and I felt how I started to reflexively draw in ambient magic as to prepare for an attack.

In the complete and utter silence I tried to center me. Winter didn't really know how to deal with groups of people, who it thought I should have complete and utter control over. So basically anyone save the likes of Cowl and the senior council. Those it would love to kill instead using the former.

I really needed to get out of the village and blow shit up today and blow off steam. I didn't want to think what would happen if I'd have to defend myself in this state. I'd probably go literal berserk.

"Harry, please try some deep breaths. Barehanded gouging out wood and drawing in elementals tend to make people a bit nervous." Toot-Toot had flown to my ear and broke the silence with a stage whisper.

I saw the pale, anxious faces of my padawans and became aware of the swarm of elementals that eagerly danced around me. It was a grim reminder that people were couldn't help being afraid of me. Murphy had confided to me that, still after all those years, she felt a primal fear welling up inside her whenever she saw me cut loose. It's a drawback of treating the very elements as your personal playthings, I guess.

"I'm sorry to have startled you. The pain of my wounds caught me off guard, that's all." I tried to reassure class. It wasn't super effective, but at least they started to relax. However nothing productive would be achieved as it was.

"I didn't mean to start the fire." Came a small voice from behind the burned spot of the table. "It's just the fire lizards looked like they had so much fun playing with me and..."

"It's alright Jenna. It happens to the best of us and nobody has been hurt. Just be more careful to not lose yourself the next time you're playing, ok?"

"It happens to the best of us? You just want to justify your trail of rampant destruction you leave in your wake wherever you go." Toot retorted lightly and turned to face Jenna. "Don't worry about that small, black mark. It's nothing compared to what happens to Harry's immediate surrounding when he's butting heads with something outside his league."

No point in denying that. Most of them had heard what happened when I tested my experimental fireball.

"As long as you learn from your mistakes, you'll be fine." I said and which enough to elicit a snicker from Toot-Toot. "On that note, let's stop here. I'm still tired from and you probably wouldn't mind either. Before we go let's go over the seven laws once more."

"Do we really have to? You keep droning on about those rules and we only have your word that something bad will happen when we break it. What's the big difference between mortals and non-mortals, whatever that means, to make some arbitrary rules anyways?"

I looked and saw it was Anna, one of the older kids and general rebel, who had asked the questions. She was a free spirit and showed an affinity with sylphs. I decided to investigate personal traits with preferred elements, if I somehow found the time.

"As I explained before, magic comes from life and is at least shaped by the collective human consciousness. This is probably also the reason for the distinction as between mortal and monster. Twisting this energy to do any of the things forbidden by the seven laws will corrupt it and it will corrupt you. It would be like sending a child to main and kill its parents." Not strictly true with the seventh law but preventing the destruction of Reality warranted its inclusion. Also time travel might only be included to avoid giving Rashid massive migraine and general time line fuckery. "If you use magic, you have to believe wholeheartedly that you have the right to make the calls you make, otherwise it'll fail. Once you start warping the very essence of life to suit your whims and destroy someone else's life, it'll become easier to do it once more. Then you'll start to branch out, experimenting with what kinds of atrocities you're able to inflict. Where I'm from, we execute those found guilty of breaking the Laws just to prevent the downward spiral."

"And so you say. How do we know you're not making shit up just so you're able to control us more easily?"

That comment made me shiver just a little bit. Little did she know that I'd do the opposite of enforcing those rules if Winter got a say in things. It's much easier to control addicts by providing a 'fix' after all.

"Anna! Would you please refrain from further baseless accusations."

Heinz, who had joined us as he usually did at the end of the lesson, apparently had enough and made that fact known. He didn't raise his voice much and he didn't need to. After being saved by Schierke and friends and opening up to magic he had become somewhat of the village dad. He had tried his best to rectify his previous mistakes and generally better himself. The patience he possessed, made him a good listener and thus he helped people deal with the traumatic events that kept on happening. His arrival gave me an idea.

"Anna, do you trust Heinz?" A small nod confirmed that assumption. "You might have noticed that I avoid looking people in their eyes?" Another nod. "This is because I can trigger a so called Soulgaze. It's something that happens when someone develops his or her Sight. If triggered you see the very essence of a person. It can't be faked or altered by the person and it'll stay with you, the memory as clear as the day you saw it. While you're looking at someone soul they get to do the same and stuff like the taint caused by will be visible."

I let my words sink in and turned to face Heinz, picking my next words carefully. It might undermine the trust I've build with the community but I couldn't let someone slip into the insanity that is black magic without trying at least this much.

"The reason why I'm so adamant about the Laws and why I feel qualified to talk about their effects is a simple one: I've broken the first law once. I've killed my mentor and father figure in self-defense when he tried to enslave my will when I was about your age, Anna. The only reason I'm still alive was because someone risked his own life by taking me as his student. If I were to even come close to breaking one of the Laws once again. We both would have been executed on the spot."

I paused to see how the people were reacting. They were still, looking slightly worried while they were processing this information. Toot-Toot was sitting in a comfortable chair that somehow floated midair.

"Ever since I had to resist the pull of taking shortcuts that would've made my life much easier ruin someone else's life. I had to suppress the urge to get power for the sake of power and domination over other people. My soul has been tainted by that one act of self-defense." And the subsequent choices, but they didn't have to know about those yet. "Heinz would you be willing to let me Soulgaze you and get confirm my words?"

"I don't really like invading your very being like this, but it's probably the only way for me to understand the dangers you speak off."

"If that's the case I'd advise you to take a seat. If the reactions of others is any indication, my soul isn't a pretty place."

"I prefer to keep standing. It can't be that bad."

I sighed at his somewhat feigned fearlessness and his all too real worry for my wellbeing. I looked around once more before to see if I had everyone's attention. It seemed I had it. Toot-Toot had even materialized a bag of popcorn and was sitting on the edge of his seat.

I might tell him about the burger for that.

I took one last breath and looked Heinz in the eyes. I felt the familiar tug of the Soulgaze and then the gray of his iris engulfed me.

I was standing in a somewhat sparsely decorated church. The white hawk with the two spiraling orbs, the symbol of his faith, stood upon a central pedestal. The walls were decorated with murals and the large stained glass windows showed depictions of divine figures. I hadn't really expected something that different from a man of God.

A second look revealed the changes that the faithful events months ago had brought about. Fire burned in fireplaces along the walls, illuminating the whole scene in an atypical warm glow. The benches were cushioned and I could even see some blankets scattered amongst them. The stained glass looked like they had recently been changed. The four windows depicting angelic entities each had a color scheme that corresponded to the elementals and each of the entities had characteristics that brought their likeness closer to the elementals they represented.

However, the biggest change was what happened to the murals. While there were still plenty with religious scenes and imagery, plenty were plastered over or even showed something else entirely. There was one were the church was bathed in multicolored light with a robed person standing on the roof. Another showed a man battling an ogre with a humongous sword while still another showed a battle between a kelpie and a man clad in sylphs. I even spotted one where a wyvern falling from the heavens was depicted and one of a wolf.

As I felt the connection weakening I was able to see a picture appear on a previously blank patch of plaster. I was yanked to reality before I could make out what it should represent.

I was aware that I was back in reality when I heard Heinz fall down. Shock, awe and sorrow were battling for dominance over his face and looked me in the eyes.

"How are you still alive?" He stammered. "How are you still such a good person?"

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that." I quietly answered, the memory of my blood cover hands surfacing once more. Susanne's blood.

I suppose it made a strange sight. Not moments ago we were talking and now, moments later one of the most respected members of the village sat on his back in a daze.

"Harry, leave the matters regarding consequences for breaking the Laws to me for the time being. Thank you for showing me this."

I looked around and saw that everyone was fixated on Heinz, giving only side glances to yours truly. I wouldn't manage to do anything here, so I decided this was my cue to leave.

"Come, let's go hunting Lieutenant-General."

He gave a salute, waved class goodbye and exited the room with a wicked grin. I followed after a final glance and quietly closed the door behind me.

We left the Inn that pulled double duty as an impromptu school building and made a beeline to the forest. We made sure to get a bit further away as usual to avoid collateral damage to the village.

**OoOoO**

"Double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

"He has lost it, hasn't he?" asked Franz to nobody in particular.

"It does look like it. I wouldn't come too close for it might be contagious." It was good to see that Toot-Toot had my back.

Franz had entered the room, no doubt with the intention to go over the progress of the armor, and found me trying to make a potion. He had promptly joined the ever growing crowd that was watching me brew in the smallest kettle I borrowed from Ursula the innkeeper, which in turn was heated by a makeshift stove at the back of the smithy. I would have preferred to do this over at the inn, but Ursula had objected to packing away all the diary for the second time today.

Quick visits to the inn weren't much of a problem, especially while I was suppressing my aura. We had learned to bring diary to safety before starting class. Potion making, however wasn't a quick process and needed an active dose of magic to work. Hence the setup in the smithy. The smithy, whose name I had finally learned was Sig, hadn't mind much. That last part was probably partly because he was still a bit confused about the design of the improvised thorn manacle I had asked to have made.

I ignored the puzzled looks I earned while I added a piece of plain cloth to the brew.

"First there was that minor earthquake and the sight of birds flocking to the skies in the distance. Then came the smoke." Franz said, trying to find reason in recent events.

"Then you came back, the carcass of some kind of overgrown, salmon colored, featherless chicken floating behind you."

I silenced Toot-Toot with a stare as I added emptied an apparently empty pot to add the rustle of the wind . People didn't have to hear that it was the third of its kind I encountered and the first with enough structural integrity to be transported back. Also I didn't want them to look for the craters that had suddenly appeared deep in the forest.

At least Winter had been pacified enough to not get into the way too much. For now.

"Then you went around with pots and a piece of cloth to… What were you actually doing?"

"Apparently he caught the sound of the rustle of the wind." Alfred answered for me. "He had mentioned, he had something planned while visiting the frostbite victims before he went around town with the pots."

The explanation didn't really put Alfred at ease.

The memory of the frostbite victims made me wince. Three of them looked like they had burned patches of their skin. Edmund had stumbled and fallen while running away from Dreadlocks and me. He had tissue damage in his foot and would perhaps have to miss it in the future. Alfred ensured me that it wouldn't be lethal as long as they kept vigilant for necrosis. Living in the mountains there had been on or two cases every winter and worse cases had survived with all limbs intact.

Also Edmund didn't really blame me, telling me he had been transfixed by Slan's form for too long.

Still, I could kick myself for not asking Listens to Wind about medicinal potion or anything else medicine related.

"Actually, I also collected the smell of the Inn's common room and the sound of dripping water." I added, which earned me even more confused looks.

"To make a potion you need a liquid base, in this case water, and five ingredients that each represent one of the five sense. Then you need to add something for the mind and the spirit, bring the total of eight parts per potion." I started to explain. "All of these ingredients have some connection to the wizard making the potion, the environment and the goal of said potion, making it more of an art than a science."

"What is it supposed to do and why are you making it now?" Alfred inquired.

"While we were out hunting, we found that overgrown chicken." Once again I omitted the fact that it wasn't necessary the first one. "Toot over here mentioned that it tasted blander than poorly cooked chicken. We tried some and once again Toot was correct in his assessment."

"You still haven't told me why that was that important to hunt more after..." Toot-Toot began before registering my stare. Maybe I was in time to stop people assuming the worst. A man can dream can't he?

I added the straw into the mix for touch. It was about as common as bubble wrap back home

"I was thinking about improvising the blending potion to get by, but I couldn't really think of a local substitute for the taste ingredient with enough of a personal meaning."

Toot had conjured his flip board once more and was now showing badly drawn scenes of explosions and red giblets in a way of quiet protest. I decided for once not to go against a force of nature and let him as I added the final ingredients. I broke of a piece of an empty slate we used during magic lessons for the mind, hopefully being a good enough replacement for a blank piece of paper, and threw it in the bubbling mess that was the potion before any real magic was applied.

Heinz and the rest of the Hartmanns joined the small crowd as I carefully coaxed the sound of slowly dripping water for the mind into the potion to be. It was as close to the tedious but yet aggressively inoffensive elevator music I could get.

"Now I would advise to stand back and not to interrupt me. I'm about to start the wizarding and, even though I'm fairly certain it should work, I'm not willing to give guarantees."

While I waited for my impromptu audience to move further back with chatter somewhere between general curiosity and apprehension, I started to form the spell that was supposed to change this chunky mixture of random stuff into an actual potion.

I was done about the same time as Toot was in building a chest-high structure to take cover behind on a nearby table.

And thus I began my singsong quasi-Latin incantation, pushing magical energy and my desire to blend in and generally seem as bland and inoffensive as possible into the liquid contained into the miniature kettle.

"Who did _what _to a goat?" I heard Heinz ask in disbelief at the edge of my hearing as the liquid slowly started to change texture and color.

With one last push and the knowledge that it looked like Latin was the official language of at least the church, the potion was finished.

It looked and smelled bland and boring enough that I felt sliding my attention slide off it ever so slightly.

I smiled and as I looked at the mortified priest. "I'm sorry about whatever I've just said. As I've told you, you need language or at least vocalization to insulate your mind when using magic. I have chosen Latin as that language." Heinz seemed to remember that particular lesson and its implications.

Toot-Toot hung over the structure he build, laughing and banging it with his hand, and started to get a blue tint.

"As you perhaps noticed, I simply sounded words without much thought on while imbuing the potion with magic. At the best of times my Latin is plain bad. At one hand it's a good thing as it prevents me from simply force pushing people around with an idle word. On the other hand it's the official language and my inability to use it properly tend to annoy people."

"Linguistics and magic is all fine and dandy but, what exactly is that stuff supposed to do?" Franz interjected, nipping the discussion about magic in the bud. He thought that tanning and leatherworking was magical enough, especially while working with exotic materials and model as he was now.

"This might be the answer to me blending in, Franz." I answered and I saw his face with a flicker of hope. "If this works you could make the armor bright pink and no one would look twice at me."

Well I had him interested. I had the feeling that he wanted to use some parts that simply were too extravagant if he needed me to blend in.

"Before I show what it does, do I have anything left to do until dinner?" A series of shaking heads gave me the go ahead.

"Alfred, be at the ready, just to be sure. I'm pretty sure it'll work as it's supposed to, but you can't be too save."

And with that last remark I too a swig of the potion.

The effect was immediate. The color drained from the people gathered in the smithy, leaving behind at least fifty shades of differing greys.

They looked around in wonder and confusion before each going their way and resuming their day. I gave a short shout of triumph which barely infused any color back into the body of Sig.

"So, now you've joined the ranks of the ignored, how about the master gives you some lessons in the art of pranking?" Toot-Toot asked, radiating mischievousness from his naturally colored body.

It was kind of disheartening to see that he wasn't affected by the potion. Sure, he was one of the fae and had to deal with glamours and such all the time. It however probably meant that more supernatural beings wouldn't be affected and that I couldn't use it to hide me from my stalker.

No sense in agonizing over things I had no influence over, especially when pain and misery was pretty much a given in the near future. I had nothing to do really anyway, besides replenishing my soul.

"Please teach me, oh mighty sensei." I pleaded with exaggerated humility and a whoop from the Lieutenant-General.

Enoch experienced an extraordinary windy late afternoon during the hour or so that the blending potion did its job.

Many people also found that things were often just out of reach during that time and were wondering as to why Toot-Toot seemed as merry as he was.

During the meal people kept asking where I had found meat that tasted this bland. Franz discussed some ideas of integrating some parts of my newest scaly victim. Sig inquired once more whether I was sure that the spike were supposed to point inward on the manacle.

At the end I was convinced to open up Dresden Wolf Rides Inc., mostly by Erich. The laughter of the kids riding my back one at the time was a bitter sweet reminder of how much I missed Maggie and the rest in the sensible corner of the universe I called home.

I had to watch out not to smother her with my hug when I managed to return.

My last waking hour was spend being told that I should hit the bunks and rest. Apparently there where barely any monster left and none of them dared to attack. Also I was told by numerous people I looked like shit.

I relented after Toot assured me he'd wake me if there were to be trouble. He also reminded me of the Winter problem I still had. It had been quiet for most of the afternoon, its few impulses after the hunt suppressed easily enough, but I could notice that it was getting restless as time went by. I had to admit that it wasn't a good idea to unnecessarily let me wait in combat ready in this state.

And thus I lay in bed preparing, to face Ignaz and whatever he brought with him.

**OoOoO**

A hundred otherworldly eyes of the fleshy mass gazed down upon the black and broken form approaching it.

A beat of the eldritch heart send out a shockwave that had Guts reeling back a hard earned feet and he collapsed amongst the fresh remains of the freshly slain guardian.

He had lost his eardrums and much of his equilibrium a couple of bone rattling beats before. His sight had gone not soon after. His sense of touch followed soon after and now he was solely relying on Shierke to be his eyes and ears. She was the one to guide him to the core of this abomination and help him slay the fucking monster.

That is, if he was able to get there. Shierke was desperately pleading for him to get up. However, every joint in his body creaked under the strain of trying to move. Guts was pretty sure he was bleeding out of every orifice because of the sheer pressure of the shockwave the heart generated with every beat.

If it went on like this it would mean the end of him, the crew, his friends and Casca. He wouldn't allow that. So he delved deeper into his madness, actively looking for the Hellhound.

Suddenly a song filled the air, negating the horrendous pressure and filling him with hope.

Hope wasn't enough to make the wreck that was his body move again. Guts was dimly aware of Shierke demanding he should get up, telling him this was the chance.

"…unless that was mere bluster, then _rise!_"

A mad grin spread across Guts' face as he reached out to the madness within and taunted it into action.

"So pierce my flesh and bones! Give me waking agony!" The last taunting command was followed by the Hellhound taking over and the searing pain as the cursed berserker armor, biting deep into his flesh and bones to allow Guts to stand.

Through the maddening desire to kill and main, Guts followed Shierke's guidance and crossed the last few steps separating him and the heart.

Bleeding out of every crack of armor, with a final effort he lifted the Dragonslayer and cut deeply into the heart.

The last thought before the torrent of noxious blood hit him was about how much the recovery of this ordeal was going to suck before being washed away.

**I hope you enjoyed this voyage in a brand new world.**

**Remember that feedback and constructive criticism sustain and improve both the story and me as a writer. Don't be afraid to review.**

**For questions and more direct interactions I recommend going to the Space Battles forums. As I said in the previous chapter I'll be posting the chapters or snippets thereof on the forums first so I get the chance to improve it, before posting a more polished version on fanfiction.**

link: threads/berserking-wizard-berserk-the-dresden-files.326393/


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.**

**First off, a huge shout out to BazookaMan from the SV forums**** for proofreading the chapter.**

**Then I'd like to apologize for the long wait between this and last chapter. Life (college) had a bit more planned than I and was quite persistent to pull through.**

**Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy the chapter even after the six or so week break in between.**

I startled awake, drenched in sweat and panting.

With a practiced motion I reached towards the grotesque little thing that clung to my head and was the reason for my rude awakening. An ice-coated finger met the solitary eye in the middle of its body and pierced it as the other fingers found a grip on the blob.

With a whip-like motion I threw it against the nearest wall where it exploded into slimy, convulsing giblets. Its remains slithering down added another layer to the macabre Pollock painting that was formerly just a simple wall.

I groaned at the twinge of sharp pain the movement caused. It had been two weeks, give or take a few days, since the attack of the psycho lady and the wound still hurt. Even through the numbing effect of the Mantle.

The pain wasn't the only problem; it, in combination with the stunt I pulled to get rid of her avatar, had made Winter more active. Beyond the increased urge to punch the people I had been dealing with, there was a slight problem with ice unconsciously covering parts of my body to aid whatever I was trying to do. Especially if that something was even slightly aggressive in nature. The ice claws I had that only retracted just now, were one prime example.

They didn't even had the decency of having any of the associated sound effects to warn me when they showed themselves.

The creature, whose body had detached it from the impromptu painting with a moist squelch, was another problem that had me on edge.

The life sucking bastards were pretty harmless as far as monsters went. Sure they sucked life force out of you, but they only had a ghost of chance against sleeping victims. They apparently were also only able to do that while causing nightmares. It meant that most of them met a swift demise as the victim woke up. As was apparent from the most recent pile of tentacled corpses underneath the splatter zone.

They hadn't been a problem before. Before that last fight with my stalker I couldn't do much sleeping at night and when I did sleep I simply collapsed into a dreamless, exhausted slumber. That changed as the monsters lost their leader and the organized attacks ceased. They seemed to be attracted by magic and thus, I was the biggest most delicious target in a very large area.

Combine that with the thresholds of the villagers' homes getting stronger at the same time, it made me pretty much the only target.

The result was that I hadn't slept for more than a couple, non-consecutive hours per night for a while now and Hell's Bells, I really missed my daily dose of coffee and sugary donuts to get me through day.

To complete the picture, the creatures loved to prod painful memories of loss and regret. The last few nights, a nightmarish version of Ignatz, blood continuously pulsing out the chest wound, had teamed up with Susan as I last saw her before I killed her in a similar fashion.

If the feeling of her blood on my hands wasn't as strong every time she showed up, I would have been glad that the creatures focused on that memory instead of going after more violent ones. The smithy still stood out because of that choice.

I couldn't even take shelter behind of one of the ever strengthening thresholds. It wasn't as if no family would take me. Erich would have been overjoyed to have me under the same roof. However, there was no way telling what Winter would be up to making it very dangerous for those around me.

I sighed and looked down once more to the pile of incubi corpses, before standing up and readying myself and smirking.

Thomas might just be annoyed when he learns what else people are calling incubus. Sure, he might not have particularly fond feelings towards his species but at the very least the description of the pathetic blob of jelly ought to be enough to irk him.

The door opened as I finished washing and changing. Sig looked through the opening and held the shovel. After repeating the same scene for the past six days I started to grow the slightest bit suspicious.

"Again?" He asked as I remembered that his timing had sooner something to do with the fact that I was a creature of habit more than anything sinister.

I took the handle of the shovel and answered. "Good morning to you too, Sig. And yes they were after me again." I opened the door completely and stepped aside to reveal the newest alteration of the modern art the incubi and I had created. Sig looked nonplussed at the gory scene. "Can you pass me a bucket?"

Sig didn't even have to go get it. The other hand reached through the door and I was now a proud owner of said bucket. I couldn't help to notice that his movements were a bit more sluggish than usual. A symptom I was very much familiar with, considering all the times I had been running on empty.

"It's getting worse isn't it?" I checked as I used the control granted by the Longinus to gently float the remains into the bucket. "The monsters are getting louder and it sounds like they're getting more aggressive."

"That's right. Had to deal with four flying bastards." Sig answered with a tired sigh as he turned to do some blacksmithing.

I couldn't do much defending anymore. Enoch had become more famous by the day, attracting traders and pilgrims alike. Rumors of normal people spitting in the face of destiny and turning terrifying hunters into ordinary prey captivated the hearts of neighboring villages.

It would have brought a mighty bout of smiting down on our heads if it wasn't for Heinz. He managed to convince the people that he and some of the more prominent villagers were blessed by visions of the White Hawk before the attack of the red wyvern. It had shown them the hallowed designs of the arrowheads that blessed them with the power of one of the four angels.

He would tell that story and the subsequent incidents with such confidence and enough religious fervor that he would have convinced me. It helped that he did indeed strongly believe in those four archangels, or as they were also known - if his recounts of Schierke's explanation were correct - the four Elemental Kings.

It also helped that the people were tired of being hunted and being treated as cannon fodder. They wanted the possibility to finally stick it to destiny, kick some ass, and chew some bubblegum. And bubblegum hadn't even been invented in bizarro-world. Using "blessed" objects to do the fighting was a welcome option even with all the special magical effects involved.

Overt magic, however, still clashed too much with their beliefs in a very torches-and-pitchforks kind of way. The villagers couldn't do too much visible stuff; Elisabeth had just enough juice to let arrows fly faster and gain improved penetration, Sig was just a bit tougher and stronger thanks to his affinity to the golems. Sure, especially someone like Sig, who had been unconsciously maintaining his talent with his work in the smithy, could do some impressive stuff like creating a wave of molten spikes, but it required more than an hour of meditating to pull off and he could barely walk afterwards. He used his innate magic to hit much harder but it wasn't obvious since Sig looked the part. As long as they tethered little Erich somewhere in a closed room, they could hold up the masquerade.

I wasn't so lucky. People somehow tend to notice when some really tall guy starts throwing around beams of fire, giant icicles, and the monsters themselves. I also didn't trust myself enough to go medieval and wade into a melee with the critters of hell. The increased hold of the Mantle made that a scary proposition for anyone around that wasn't me. Likewise I couldn't rely on Winter's instincts to proficiently use the bow even if I wanted to taunt fate. I knew that this world would throw the next nasty at the most inopportune moment just to make me betray my nature to the visitors.

The best way I could help the villagers was to educate them and to come up with new arrows and trust that they could handle themselves.

I was about to finish collecting most of the incubi chunks when Toot-Toot flew in and gave me a salute.

"Lieutenant-general Toot-Toot Minimus reporting in, lord!" he solemnly declared before his eyes wandered to the red and brown cobble wall. "This is a good one, Harry. I wouldn't clean it if I were you. Just imagine how much worth a painting made by the one that's going to save their collective asses will get after accomplishing the latter."

His constant internal battle between his losing but sincerely serious side and the mischievous side filled with wonder, always managed to brighten the day after a rough night. Even if it was just for a bit.

"You'd have to ask Sig about keeping the painting, Toot." I replied, the hint of a smile appearing on my tired face. "But weren't you about to report something lieutenant-general?"

"Oh right, sorry Harry." Toot-Toot said as he tore his eyes of the macabre mural and cleared his throat before continuing. "Alfred wanted you to know that the alcohol from the distillery you recently built had significantly reduced the redness and swelling he'd expected from last night wounds."

I didn't know much of medicine of chemistry, but I did know that alcohol had antiseptic properties. From my time on the farm and my alchemical experiments I also knew how to make a basic distillery. It wasn't optimal but it, together with the suggestion to Alfred to boil the bandages, suture threads, and instruments he used after cleaning them, would help keeping infections from becoming too severe.

It would perhaps even allow Edmund, the worst of the frostbite victims, to keep the bigger part of his foot.

"Hey, Sig!" Toot-Toot shouted, his duty done once more focusing on the more pressing concerns. "What if Harry leaves the stain on the walls? I'm sure they'll be worth plenty in the next century…"

A shiver visibly ran though Toot as, presumably Sig shot him a murderous gaze. It was even more impressive after noticing the armor he was wearing momentarily deformed as the shiver passed through it.

"I'll go and look for something to clean that wall with. I'll be right back." Toot hastily replied before disappearing in a streak of silver and violet.

Moments later he reappeared and started to frantically scrub the splatter zone under the low, rhythmic rumble that was Sig's chuckle.

While Toot was busy polishing the wall to a shine, which wasn't something I thought possible with a rough stone wall, I grabbed the not quite innocuous object on the table.

Sure, the metal bracelet looked slim and elegant and one might even say it looked beautiful with the fine carvings covering the shiny metal. But that only lasted until you looked at the inside. With the basic design idea coming from the thorn manacles I was way too familiar with, they possessed dozens of small spikes on the inside.

I put the manacle on, fastened the clasp and hissed as the iron infused spikes penetrated the outermost layer of my skin. Mind you, it wasn't the spikes that caused the reaction as they barely even managed to scratch that layer. No, the problem was that those spikes had the function of forcing the Mantle to retreat deep inside me. The amount of iron and the depth of penetration wasn't enough to cause me more discomfort than a heated zone around my wrist that was just a bit too hot. Which would be fine if the hell tart hadn't wounded me before. The pain I felt even through the mantle tripled.

Moments later, my right wrist was swarmed by hundreds of undine, steadily consuming the magic aura I exuded and grounding me to near normal levels for bizarro-world. As soon as they had their fill, they would be replaced by other, hungry ones.

The first prototype ended in me almost drowning and the Mantle lashing out as the undines completely swarmed me. The next one was a more traditional model but lacking the exact enchantments, the thorns were made just a bit longer. It left me in agony as the iron penetrated my flesh.

It had taken a lot of effort to convince Sig to make this model after that. Even after assuring him that The Lady of the Deep Water and I had significantly improved upon the design.

Now the spikes had two functions. One was to drive the Mantle far enough away to not endanger the elementals without leaving me a gibbering wreck. The second was to pull and focus my aura to the area around the manacle. There the other enchantments came to play. When into contact with magic, the manacle attracted undine to get them interested in my tasty magic but also prevented them to come into contact with my skin.

The end result was, that I could walk around without ruining people's breakfast in normal torchlight. The slightly moist looking area around my right wrist was much less noticeable. It also meant that I couldn't focus enough magic to fling any meaningful spells around and the Mantle being a bit cranky.

My daily venting time started to resemble a rampage more and more.

"I'm done scrubbing boss." The pixie piped and I was almost stunned silent by the one shiny part of wall. "What are the plans for today, my liege?"

"I'm going to visit Edmund to see how he's holding up and collect Alfred for the continuation of the warding lessons. Tell the others, those that are not busy or are not bogged down by visitors, and tell them we're to resume the lessons in about an hour in Lars' house." I answered packing the stuff I needed.

Lars, the mayor or town speaker to be more correct, had a house that somehow managed to remain standing for three generations without getting destroyed be the multitude of danger and without the family going extinct. It had one of strongest thresholds of the village and it was getting stronger ever since the villagers started defending themselves.

Toot saluted and went about this task and since I hadn't given him anything else to do, he'd soon start his newly found favorite pasttime: Finding the few travelers that could actually see him and play tricks on them until they developed a healthy amount of paranoia.

I followed Toot through the door and made my way towards the exit. "I'll be showing some more wards at Lars' house in about an hour. Do you think you can be there?" I shouted in the general direction of the forge.

"No." was his succinct answer which was accompanied by a mighty hammer blow and the ringing of steel.

I hadn't thought he'd be able to come. Both he and Franz had been flooded by people interested in their experience working with monster materials.

Speaking of Franz, I had the final fitting of the armor today and knowing him, he would bring an audience.

I sighed as I stepped out the door onto the street, my pain more or less banished by Lash's technique, and made my way to the newly built and already expanding clinic.

Even though it was early enough to see a few remaining burning candles and torches, the streets were already alive.

The villagers had rapidly adapted to their newly gained fame and demand for monster related materials. Already the more enterprising ones had opened up shop and were peddling materials and small, non-magical trinkets to passing travelers. These travelers were the ones that, while having decided to make a detour to see Enoch village instead of going through the more direct pass, still needed to get going and wanted to set off at the first light of dawn.

I made my way through the streets while being greeted by the locals and getting weird looks from the strangers present. Not that I blamed them. I was the tallest around by far, I didn't look anyone in the eyes and the greetings from the villagers had a noticeable warmth to them.

I knocked on the door of the clinic and was greeted by the radiant face of Erich.

"Harry!" he shouted in delight and jumped to hug me.

Jumping might not have been the correct term to use here. He moved a bit too slow and the height of the jump didn't quite match the apparent effort. He latched onto my neck and I ruffled his hair. Unnoticeable by those that neither possessed the raw magic power or sight I was swarmed by the uncountable sylphs darting around him.

"Hey Erich." I replied while he pretended to be a bit embarrassed and annoyed the obvious sign of affection. "It almost looked natural this time, but keep working on it. Having pitchfork-wielding people after you isn't fun. Is your father in?"

Erich was already able to put long jumpers to shame with ease and with the way he was copying my parkour routine, soon there wouldn't be any obstacle to stop him. Of course, the sylphs were much more concerned for his well-being than they were for my own. They cushioned every landing and fall to a degree where even flying should be safe for him.

It would still take a while before he achieved full flight. However, combine it with his talent for the bow he probably received from his mother, he would become an unholy terror for any monster that wanted to attack him.

And any human as well if my luck had rubbed off on him.

Erich led me inside and we found Alfred at Edmund's side.

"It looks like the removal of those dead toes did the trick. You'll get to keep your leg after all."

Alfred's mention of the damage I had caused made me cringe.

"Again I'm sorry for…" I started as I walked in his curtained off section before being interrupted by him.

"Not this again, Dresden. How many times do I have to repeat myself? It was my own damned fault. If I wasn't distracted by those tits." Alfred cleared his throat and gestured at the oblivious, hovering Erich before throwing Edmund a pointed look.

"Anyways, we would have all been dead if it wasn't for you. Hell even I would have been fine if I had just run like you told us to." Edmund was wildly gesticulating at this point.

The insensitive bastard didn't even have the decency to let me be moody and self-centered. How could I be a true wizard with opposition like this?

"Good to see you are still as lively as ever, Edi. You'd think having lost some toes would dampen the positivity a bit"

"We're given a surplus anyways. This way we can lose some, isn't that right Alfred?"

"I wouldn't say that, but..." Alfred looked at the smiling idiot that lay in the bed and chose to just leave it be.

I wondered how it was even possible to remain this happy. Edmund had to have some rare talent to pull it off.

"You only wanted to see Edi and me, Harry?" A small shouted protest came from a pouting Erich as the words left his father's mouth. "And, of course, Erich as well. Or did you wanted discuss my experiences with the alcohol last night?"

"A bit of both actually, as well as to tell you that I'll be giving the warding pointers in about half an hour."

"I should be able to make it. Will you walk with me? I have to see the other patients and it has the added bonus of seeing the fruits of our labor first hand."

And thus we went around the small clinic and surveyed the few villagers that were wounded in last night battle.

Erich tagged along for the first five minutes or so before disappearing. Presumably Toot-Toot had found them and he was now sharing his love for flying with the pixie at the new magic school building. It was a freshly build cabin in the neighboring woods, far enough away to keep curious people ignorant but close enough to not be exposed to any real danger.

Listening to Alfred explaining the visible improvements the methods had brought about and recounting previous cases we went from patient to patient. I only interrupted him when I remembered something biology or medicine related from my lackluster education or my personal experience at being injured and thought it important enough to share. As a result, Alfred probably had the most extensive knowledge of anatomy in a very big area, even if my recounting were sometimes a bit imprecise and the covered material arbitrarily chosen according to when I remembered stuff.

About a minute late, I knocked on the door of Lars' house and I could feel the wards I had built in the previous lesson react in response.

"Ah Harry there you are." Lars opened the door and had started talking even before he saw the entirety of either of us. "Please come in the both of you."

I felt the pressure of the threshold parting and the wards becoming inactive. "It's called being fashionably late," I quipped as I followed Lars and Alfred to the study.

Heinz and Elisabeth, who probably came directly from the practice fields, were already bowed over the sole book lying on the table. I was teaching them the Lego school of warding that Elaine had developed and meticulously wrote down the information in that book, along with the corresponding drawings, as I went along. I had even begun to integrate the elementals.

After the customary greetings, I resumed the lessons. Being only interrupted by requests to clarify some of the more complicated stuff or more general questions allowed us to move along with a brisk pace after which we started to practice it right then and there.

Lars' wife, Frida, returned home after settling a small dispute between two of the travelers and joined the practical exercises.

I removed the manacle to be able to help them if something were to go wrong. A wave of rime traveled over my body, thin enough to disappear immediately, and a strong urge to strangle something made the displeasure of the Mantle known to me. The main reason it didn't do much else was that it identified the humans surrounding us as 'its'.

Concentrating on the task at hand helped me suppress much of the remaining anger and I was able to appreciate Elaine's work once again. The beauty of Elaine's Lego system was that it didn't require much magical oomph to make it work and that the defenses could be expanded and improved over time.

Thus, at the end of the morning the house had a full set of wards and we had even started reinforcing it with an additional layer on top of it.

"What do you want us to do with this?" Heinz suddenly asked while pointing at the book. "It would be invaluable to many other people outside of Enoch."

I had expected the question, especially from the priest, and as such had given it some thought even before starting_warding 101_.

"I understand that it could help countless of people, however there is one problem. It needs active magic use and there isn't an easy way to form a complete net only relying on the elementals to fuel it. At some point there is the need for wizardry." I started to answer.

Before either Heinz or Elisabeth, having much a warrior's soul and believing everyone should have a fighting chance, could object I pushed onwards. "That's why I propose the following. You're already putting those who want to use and make the arrows through training."

Elisabeth had come up with that idea when the request came flooding in. This system allowed us to educate them, especially on the dangers those things possessed, and helped us get an idea of their character. Those who were worthy were taught how to make the common ones on the solemn understanding that they wouldn't be distributing them to random people and after promising that they wouldn't be used on humans. The unworthy ones were kept in training until they became worthy or simply quit.

I was aware that it wasn't a foolproof system but it was the best we could think of in such short notice. Heinz's narrative would at least prevent it from completely failing.

"I suggest that you go one step further. Create a council to review those trying to learn making the arrows. Have the council identify those that aren't complete fanatics and would be willing to learn magic and then teach it to them."

There was a bit of a sharp inhale at that. They knew they had to be careful with the witch hunt mentality many people had. Entrusting the secrets to the wrong person would probably call a crusade down on the Enoch.

"After you feel they know enough to make it virtually impossible to betray us, you could start teaching them warding as well." I finished, making it clear that questions would be welcome now.

"If they get to that stage what should we do with the book?" Alfred asked.

"You could copy the book and give him or her their own." I answered. "But I would be only copy it sparsely. There is probably enough evidence in there to grant the owner a one way ticket to a pyre."

Alfred and the rest nodded, their concerns, while not gone, lessened. Lars and Frida looked a bit concerned, perhaps truly realizing how dangerous it could become. Heinz was concentrating, no doubt thinking of a way to give the contents of my book a religious twist that should mitigate the very worst.

"Do you mind if I rephrase some of it, Harry?" He asked, his gaze pensive enough to make me faintly hear imaginary cogs turning.

"As long as you don't change the core instructions, no" I said, holding my hand up to placate him and continuing. "I know you won't, Heinz. It's simply something that has to be said out loud. Any more questions?"

Nobody had anything more to say, which I attributed to my talent in explanation. Or they were simply hungry, a notion my stomach felt like confirming.

"No? Then I have one last announcement." Suddenly I had their full interest once again. "I'll leave Enoch in the next few days. I have taught all of the magical theory you can use and showed you the necessary exercises to cultivate the talents. And while you've learned how to defend yourself, I don't want to impose on you by being a beacon for monsters and worse."

"You don't impose on anyone, Harry. We have all chosen to stand up and fight out of our own free will." Elisabeth blurted out. "Besides Erich would terribly miss his favorite uncle."

She wasn't the only one that looked downtrodden. Sure, they knew that I was only here on a temporary basis, but suddenly facing me actually leaving still was a shock.

"With only you here, I can be frank." I started, knowing that those present wouldn't betray my trust. "As you all have figured out by now, I'm not from around here." The chuckle going through the group was affirmation enough. I would do much better now, but it could be said that I stood out in the beginning.

"Even though it is technically true that I'm from across the ocean, there is more to it than that. By some weird accident, of which I myself don't know the details myself, I'm stranded in this corner of the world. Before the attack of that overgrown lizard I was moving towards a spot of concentrated magic in the hopes of finding a way back home." With the exception of Heinz they were listening intently by now. Being told personal information about someone ought to interesting, especially being given by and about the wizard that saved your ass from getting roasted. Heinz was simply sitting there, his eyes closed, with the calm expression of someone connecting the dots.

I had expected that the Soulgaze had revealed much to him, much like it did to me. I also expected that the next part wouldn't be a surprise to him.

"I stayed, in part because I needed time to heal and new gear, in part to teach you how to defend your loved ones. And I don't regret it one bit." The fear that I was betrayed their trust by leaving, a feeling that grown as I started to plan for my departure, worsened but I continued regardless. "But now that I have accomplished those goals, it's time to move on."

I looked up, getting as close to looking the others sitting at the table in the eyes without triggering the Soulgaze, until I finally reached Heinz. Looking him straight in the eyes I simply stated. "My daughter is waiting for me to come home."

A wave of understanding went through the group upon hearing those words and I could see sorrow in Heinz' eyes for my predicament.

"But that doesn't necessarily mean that I will never return here. Knowing my luck, I'll pass through here at least once more before I'm done." I said as my stomach rumbled again. "Now that that's out of the way, go ahead and get something to eat. There is one more thing I'd like to discuss with Heinz before I join you."

The other looked somewhat puzzled but then again, I had done some theological discussing with Heinz before. It wasn't really something they were that invested in and thus the immediate bodily needs trumped their curiosity.

I put the manacle back on, bracing for the spike in pain and the exited the building. I felt the wards shift into place behind me.

"You want anything in particular?" Frida asked as we were about to part ways. "I should be able to have them put aside something if you'd like."

"I'm fine, thanks. Heinz?" The eponymous priest shook his head. "It should take long anyways."

We split up, Heinz and I walking towards the nearly reconstructed church while the rest headed towards the market square.

Soon after we really kicked into gear with training, learning and later hunting, the need arose for increased efficiency in their everyday life. Out of that need something resembling a permanent, outdoor food court was created on the market square which had grown to another of Enoch's bigger attractions thanks to the exotic food they served. As it stood, there was a surprising amount of tasty monsters roaming these lands.

We arrived at the church, quiet now that the workers were out for lunch as well, and entered Heinz' office. The room wasn't that small but it had a frugal interior. Besides the twin orbs encircling the Hawk of the Holy See Religious Order, there were no decorations and furniture was just comfortable enough to fulfill the needs in an office if nothing more.

Heinz closed the door behind us. "What did you want to discuss, Harry?" Heinz asked while inviting me to take a seat in a nearby chair.

"Do remember the first Law?" It was more a rhetorical question than anything else. If you listened to my students one might believe the Laws were the only thing I talked about. "As you might have guessed, I have simplified it a bit for clarity's sake."

Heinz nodded and waited for me to continue. I don't know how much he saw when we gazed, but it probably wouldn't have been all sunshine and rainbows. It wasn't that far-fetched to assume that he saw enough to come to that conclusion on his own.

"The Law is only really relevant when actively flinging around magic and doesn't matter when using enchanted tools in vanilla ways." I started to explain. While instructing the villagers how to make the arrows, I had warned them not to use them against strangers. I hadn't explicitly told them that it would cause the corruptive backlash, but knowing my persistence on the Laws, they had simply assumed it to be for this reason.

"What about wards?"

"Pretty much the same principle. The really dangerous ones are outside of the capabilities of the majority of people. They aren't outside of mine though and with time it would be very ill-advised to try and break into my home."

Heinz slouched back in his chair to start mulling things through. I, however, wasn't finished.

"I pushed the no killing rule, mainly because it doesn't sit right with me. I would hate to see something I have designed be used to end the lives of mortals, messily at that. To see magic be misused." It had been necessary to give the villagers a fighting chance against the monsters. "Also it would be for everyone's best interest that those arrows not get unleashed on the common battlefield or used for war. That's why I wanted those regulations in place, beyond protecting Enoch's secret."

"I'm afraid that I know where this is going. Please don't give me this responsibility." Heinz pleaded. He knew my very being and he knew my mannerism better than anyone else.

"If Enoch is in danger of being overrun by the military or any other mortal faction _and_ you know you can't get anywhere with dialogue _and_there's reason to believe that the people here would be tortured or killed, I want you to authorize the use of any of the arrows."

Heinz wanted to object and it hurt me that I had to force it upon him.

"I hoped I didn't have to do it to you, but you're the only one that has enough respect of the other villagers to make this work. More important, you're the only one I _know_ I can trust to do the right thing."

Heinz looked at me, a defeated reaction dominating his expression, until finally sighing. "I had hoped you wouldn't say that. Do you think we would need it?"

"If my previous experiences are any indications, I'm afraid that you'll need it too soon for anyone's comfort." I felt a pang of paranoia saying it out loud. I had the distinct feeling that the universe was listening, but with the religious nutjobs around, all it could do was bring the hammer down earlier.

A glimmer of steely resolve started to crystalize in Heinz's ashen complexion before finally speaking deliberate care. "I can't allow that to happen to my children. Fine, I'll take the responsibility."

"Thanks, Heinz. It means a lot to me."

Heinz chuckled at that comment. "You knew it would go this way didn't you?"

"I hoped you would agree, but I wouldn't have held it against you if you refused. With that out of the way, How about we join the others and get something to eat ourselves?"

Heinz stood up and I followed suit. "Let's go. You're paying, Harry."

The trip to the market was uneventful and both of us spend it deep in thought. Heinz was probably thinking about ways to tell the others the truth when the time arrived. I was thinking what the best way to proceed should be. I was also secretly dreading whatever Franz had planned for me that afternoon.

The lunch was uneventful just until the time Toot and Erich found me while I was quietly digesting somewhere at the edge of the bustling square.

"Do you really have to go? Toot hasn't finished teaching me flying yet." I looked over towards Toot who skillfully managed to dodge the brunt of my gaze. "Don't you want to see me fly?"

Erich was looking at me with tear-filled eyes and I felt my resolve waver for a bit. The little rascal idolized me for saving the girl that was definitely not his crush, giving them the ability to fight back and then showing him a way to achieve his goal of flight.

I kneeled down and invited him to a hug. He didn't have to think twice and simply floated over and embraced me with enough force to make the pain from my spectral wounds flare up again. I ignored it in favor of returning the hug.

Before it got really weird I disentangled myself from the unwilling, little form and got as close to looking him in the eyes as I dared. I couldn't risk pulling him into a Soulgaze. Even most adults didn't even deserve that.

"Erich, do you love your parents." The aghast expression on his face didn't need adding any words to tell me just how stupid a question that was. "What would you do if Lise lost her life in battle and Freddy would suddenly go missing without any clue what happened to him afterwards?"

"I would be very sad. Flying wouldn't be fun anymore…" Erich was on the brink of breaking down and sob because of the image I painted. I wanted to punch myself for having done that, but I had few other option to make it clear to him why I _had_to go.

Just as he was about to lose himself in tears I noticed a shift in the clever little boy's posture. He looked up once more with clearly having realized why I had said that.

"That's right. I have a daughter waiting for her dad to come home." I softly told him, emotion threatening to crack up my voice. "You understand now, why I have to go?"

Erich calmed his breathing and nodded once. "Besides there isn't much I can teach you anymore. The sylphs definitely like you more than me if my previous experiences with flying are any indication."

"He does have a point, Erich. You should have seen his first landing…" Toot-Toot began enthusiastically before remembering that technically I was still annoyed with him and wisely deciding to stop talking.

"As I was saying, you will be fine. Besides I might even return here somewhere in the future and if that happens I would love to watch you soar through the skies."

Erich lightened up even more when he heard that part. Ending on a high note is always something to strive for when parting ways.

On that note I turned towards the rebellious lieutenant-general. "Toot, I want you to spend the afternoon teaching everything you know about flying to the future aviator here. This time with my express permission."

Erich whooped in joy before I had even finished my last sentence and the two were about to storm off if I hadn't held Erich back.

"Before doing anything, make sure you ask for permission first. I don't want to have any awkward conversation about this when I leave Enoch."

"Okay!" He shouted and I let him go. Disappeared out of my sight in a blink of an eye.

The next couple of hours I spend teaching the local kids in the way of magic.

Even though I say teaching, it was more the case of supervising them while they were doing the exercises to improve concentration and mental imaging. I may or may not have repeatedly given the advice that they should do or do not and that there was no such thing as try. It may have also been in a muppety voice and the heathens may have groaned from the third time onwards.

One of the problems was that I couldn't really teach them much of my magic beyond basic, universal methods and giving ideas for future exercises. They lacked the raw magical power to do as I did and would have to heavily rely on the elementals of this world to get anything done. I lacked the sheer knowledge to do more than to tell them of the observations I made in my time here.

I didn't have a doubt that they would at least stay true to the Seven Laws. I would have doubted that a fortnight ago but whatever Heinz had told them, it had worked. Even with Anna. Though they were still somewhat critical and asked for clarification when something appeared to make little sense, they seemed to have accepted that I had no interest in world conquering and that I had a bit more experience and authority on the field of magic.

They weren't glad to hear that I was going soon, but they understood my reasoning, especially after telling the abridged version of my predicament. It was vague enough to not reveal weird details but not a single word was a lie. The way that reminded me of the fae did sent a shiver down my spine.

It was a pity they didn't trust me, or were as fond of me as Erich was. There were not many questions and soon there was a general acceptance in the room.

I cursed them for not trying to hear me out. Otherwise I would have been late enough for the final fitting of my armor which in turn might have meant that there would have been little to no spectators.

But as it was, I bid my students farewell and made my way to the smithy. I needed to get my gear if the fitting were to mean anything.

No use in having an armor when I have no access to half of my gadgets.

Sadly, gathering my stuff from the suspiciously empty smithy didn't take half as long as I'd like. There was nothing left except to follow my nose to the tannery and face the proverbial music.

I collected myself before knocking on the door. It opened after the first knock and Franz was illuminated from inside the building, somehow looming over me.

"There you are, Harry. Come in. Quick. We're all waiting for you to show up."

I had barely enough time to utter a hastily vocalized greeting before I was herded inside. It was almost as if Franz was afraid that I'd simply bolt.

It wasn't that I didn't like him, it was just that he had too much energy for anyone's good.

He led me to a room with something that looked suspiciously like a stage and we began the process of putting the armor on under the torrential stream of words. While working with him I had long learned to recognize the appropriate times to nod, shake or give a non-committed grunt without the need of listening to his every word.

While Franz was explaining were the materials came from and the reason for the particular design, I had the time to look around the room.

I saw Sig, Lise and Heinz sitting in the front row. Sig and Lise were probably both here because of an interest in the armor itself and to get ideas for pieces of their own. Sig was probably also using it to get some inspiration on how to use those materials himself.

Heinz was probably here both to satisfy his curiosity and to offer me moral support.

The other were a mixture from the militia and some of the travelers.

We started with a pair of low boots with large scales protecting my toes and the most of the rest of my foot. The overlapping design of the scales wouldn't hinder movement too much.

Next were the greaves. They were made out of hard scaly hide and were secured in place by clasps on the back. Both had a plate of gray dyed bone protecting my shin that ended with a large tooth that was firmly secured in place. The pulled double duty as an offensive option in case I wanted to knee a monster and as defensive measure to protect my knee form getting cut too easily.

The next part was accompanied by the obligatory thigh related teasing that was met by varying degrees of snickering. The base material of the cuisses was a softer scale hide that was overlaid by big, overlapping plate like scales. Once again the armor was fastened by clasps at the back.

Next came the biggest part of equipment. The brigandine was, as the rest of the armor, made out of a scaly hide. Attached on top of that were larger scales and plates of bone which stuck a compromise between defense and freedom of movement. Additionally it had some large plates on the side of my hip as well as tassets hanging from it to further protect my upper legs. I had a shoulder holster rig attached for my revolver as well as a sheath for both my Blasting rod as well as the Longinus itself. Two small bags at my hips contained ammunition for my revolver as well as other small miscellaneous materials. The clasps for the brigandine were on the side of the armor.

The pieces of armor were connected together with multiple leather straps and even more clasps. A sash obscured the area where the cuisses met the brigandine.

"The client had opted to forsake the pauldrons in favor of freedom of movement." Franz had moved to the vambraces and had seen the need to explain the lack of shoulder guard.

The part of the crowd that hadn't seen me fight erupted in a hushed discussion as they wanted to make sense of what they were seeing. No one failed to notice that there wasn't metal used in any of the pieces that were presented up to this point.

The looks to shot me ranged from pitying me for my apparent stupidity to barely hidden curiosity while the villagers in the room had to make an effort not to start laughing at their ignorance. Only Lise was the one that was truly annoyed at their disrespect towards me.

I simply let them be while idly wondering whether or not witnessing a wyvern attack would change their opinion. It wasn't their fault not knowing that I wielded cosmic powers, I worked hard to make it that way after all. They also couldn't know that I had used said cosmic powers to enchant my equipment.

The upcoming duster had the usual ones. Cut and pierce resistance, fire resistance, the air conditioner enchantment, my Gore-Tex one, and so on. The Armor had only the latter two simply due to simple economics. You had to spend much time and effort to make and maintain enchantments that persisted through multiple sunrises. I had however taken a page from Bob's book and included a spell to call forth sylphs and hopefully make arrows miss me when I activated it. In theory it should consume less of my stamina than my shield bracelet. That theory wasn't really tested since I needed to be in it and nobody felt that shooting at me with fast traveling projectiles was a particularly smart idea.

"Don't worry, we have found a workaround for the little shoulder problem but first let's look at the vambraces." Franz continued unperturbed as the crowed quieted down enough. "It's made of the same hide used for the greaves and the observant members of the crowd will notice that the bone attached to it is rather thin." Franz lifted the vambraces so that those in the back could also see it.

I in the meantime slipped into my new wrist high leather gloves. All things considered they weren't particular fancy but they were well made and supple which was all I would really want from them.

I got handed the vambraces and proceeded to put them on. "While we wait for the client to secure them in place I want to take the time to show you why those plates are as thin as they are." With a dramatic flourish, Franz swirled around and retrieved the duster from a box standing behind it. "This long coat is made from the wing membrane of the slain wyvern. It boasts an impressive protection against cutting and stabbing while at the same time retaining the suppleness of the material it's made off."

I couldn't help but smirk. If the traveling merchants knew just how impenetrable I could make something like this, their eyes would have probably rolled out of their sockets. I was handed the dark grey duster as soon as I was done fiddling with the clasps of the vambraces.

With a practiced movement I put it on, the smell and weight calming me. I felt protected for the first time in a while.

I moved around, both to show the spectators my freedom of movement and test it out myself. It wasn't completely unrestricted but probably the best next thing. It was remarkable really, considering what I was wearing.

Finally I got handed my helmet. I didn't really like the ideas but after sorely missing it the last time I was in armor I agreed to have it included in my arsenal.

That decision was helped immensely after seeing Franz' first sketch and seeing that it looked like a scaly, spiky version of magneto's helmet. It also gave me the idea of including some enchantments that should make breaking into my mind much harder if I actually wore it.

While I was fiddling around with the helmet and making sure my other gear was in their place, Franz had brought a large slab of polished metal.

I looked like the love child of jedi sensibilities and a knight made by the Games Workshop. One that had entered its rebellious phase and renounced its father's love for shoulder guards. The red, brown black and grey color scheme was muted enough to surprise me more than I would admit.

As I was preparing myself for the upcoming round of questions, the relative silence was broken by a cry that reminded me to guard my thoughts

"Wyvern!"

I grabbed my staff and stormed outside and was indeed greeted by the sight of a wyvern circling above the village. Instead of the reddish coat this one had a greenish one.

As I was observing the beastie I noticed a worrying change its behavior. Namely it seem to sniff the air before honing in on me in my new and shiny armor.

"Hell's bells, Harry of course you had to murder Mr. Smaug wannabe and wear his skin in front of the Mrs." I chided myself.

It wasn't a problem as long as I didn't answer myself.

The wyvern charged me inciting a nasty feeling of Déjà vu as I was feverishly thinking my option through.

I couldn't do anything overt, there were too many strangers around that could link me with the village and cause unholy amounts of trouble. I could use my hand cannon but I had to load that first since I had emptied the chamber before attending the fashion show.

Since stabbing the incoming wyvern was an equally bad notion due to that little thing called momentum, I opted for the superman-dive-now-and-continue-thinking-later approach.

Too bad the wyvern didn't play ball. Instead of simply trying eviscerate me with its talons it proceeded to perform a somersault and hit me squarely with its spiked tail. Somehow.

The good news was that Franz had done a good job on the armor and I now had protection against impacts. The bad news was that I was now hurtling towards the wall I erected myself while still wearing the manacle.

I was barely able to force enough juice into my shield bracelet to make the stop just a bit less sudden.

In a slumped down against the wall I had a front row seat to the scene that unfolded.

The she-wyvern had landed in facing my and took her time purposely approaching me. That focus cost her life.

Lise and the elites of the militia came hurtling to my aid. Each had their bow out and multiple arrows in their draw hands. As soon as they had entered the effective range they let the first arrow fly. Not stopping to shoot they unleashed one arrow after the other until they had to reach to their hip quiver to be ready to unleash a second volley.

I had long learned that medieval archery could involve much less standing around and much more rapid fire. Since most monsters didn't stand still Lise and her colleagues had all the practice to improve this kick ass technique.

Dozens of arrows punched through the membranes of the wings, discharging electric shocks into the beast. Water infused arrows deeply penetrated her skin and as a final hoorah Lise had let one of the newer model arrows fly with enough magic of her own to grievously wound the wyvern.

I could feel the storm of air blades being unleashed inside of her and the wyvern collapsed, massive amounts of blood flowing out of her mouth.

The execution, there wasn't any other way to call it what just happened, lasted less than two seconds.

"Wow." I heard Toot-Toot utter in amazement at the carnage my invention and their effort had brought about.

"It looks like I'm no longer need here in Enoch, Toot." I said as I pulled myself up.

I had all my gear on me and the crimson, dying light reminded me of something I wanted to do for a long time now.

For the sake of checking one last thing before leaving I risked using my Sight and See the villagers. I caught the last glimpses of an even larger, golden form transposed over the corpse before it dissolved as the last spark of life left it. It cleared my Sight to the villagers themselves.

They had a certain measure of pride and ferocity to their forms. Even though the details differed from person to person they had some elements in common. One was the defiant look and the confident posture. Another was the various healed battle scars covering the little skin that was exposed outside the armor they were wearing. The hold of their weapons was with the confident ease of a veteran as elementals were swirling around them.

The most important change was that the three chains had completely disappeared and I could see the ones from the outsiders rusting and weakening as watched. With a satisfied smile I closed my Sight.

"Let's go Toot. Slipping away right now should prevent people from asking why I was fine. Besides, I've already said my goodbyes."

"Don't lie, you just want to walk away into the sunset, don't you?" Toot accused me smilingly.

I sported my shit-eating grin as I made my way through the gates and towards the horizon.

I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for one meddling kid.

"Harry wait up" Erich literally flew out of the woods and landed in front of me. "Daddy told me you'd try to sneak away in the commotion."

I cursed my predictability. "What do you want me to do, Erich?" I asked, my grin turned bitter sweet. "You know why I have to go. Now that Enoch has proven that it can defend itself and I'm more or less rested it's time."

"I know that. But you could join is for one last feast." Damn it, Erich had been practicing his puppy eyes and I found that I wasn't immune. "Pretty please?"

I sighed. "Alright then. One more feast and then I'm gone. Don't expect me to be there tomorrow morning. I don't want to cause a commotion when people sober up enough to realize that I shouldn't be fine."

"But wouldn't you be cold out here at night?"

"The cold never bothered me anyways, Erich." I solemnly answered him as we made our way back to the village where the first whiffs of roasted wyvern could already be smelled.

I had no idea why Toot-Toot was groaning. That quote seemed appropriate enough, given our allegiance.

**Harry's on the road again and he might even get to main plot in the next four or so chapters. I wouldn't take it for face value though. I hadn't expected to even reach chapter 4 in total, so there's that.**

**I'm also thinking of changing the title of this fic. 'Unholy Saviors' would be my top pick at the moment. Both due adhering to the Dresden Files naming scheme as well as fitting Guts and the magic users in general. If anyone have potential ideas, I'm open for suggestions.**

**Remember, reviews will help me make this fic better.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.**

**Sorry for the long hiatus, college decided to be a bit of a dick with huge exams and similar.**

**A shorter chapter to hopefully get back into the swing of things. That out of the way, I hope you enjoy.**

Rickert made one final check to ensure all the gear was secured into place on the wagon.

"Erica have you seen the box of caltrops? I can't find it in here." He asked his adopted sister as he rummaged around the miscellaneous items strewn around the mounted repeating crossbow.

"Wait a moment. I think I've seen it in the house somewhere." Erica answered as she dashed towards back into the building that served as temporary smithy and house during their short time in the village.

When confronted once more with her happy, uncaring nature, Rickert wondered how much of that was youthful naivety and how much of it was her knowingly playing that part to keep the spirits relatively high. Knowing the honed intelligence hidden beneath her bubbly demeanor, Rickert decided that it was likely plenty of the latter.

"Hurry up son, the trolls have been sighted and hour away from here." The resident smith disrupted Rickert's musing with barely veiled panic.

He was the one that had taken the both of them under his wings after fleeing Godo's home from the very same menace that was about to hit this village. "Where is Erica? We have to go. They're almost here!"

Before Rickert could put the panicking man at ease, Erica came storming out of the building, clutching small chest. "I found it, Rickert! It got knocked off the table while packing."

"Great everybody get into the cart. I'm leaving _now._" Clearly unable to cope with the sudden, massive danger, the smith had wanted to get out of here at least two hours ago.

Rickert took the caltrops from Erica and stowed it away alongside the other weapons and gadgets. As he was helping Erica get on, the smith had already leapt onto the couch with a remarkable display of athletic prowess and took the reins.

"Hold up! Wait for me!" The desperate shout of a man sprinting out the alleyway made the smith look back and much to his chagrin, he recognized the man and die as he was asked.

The newcomer was a childhood friend of the smith, up to not much, but a good enough friend to go out of the way to save him from the trolls. As soon as he jumped into the back, only nearly missing the mounted crossbow, the wagon lurched into motion under the constant muttering of expletives of the smith.

"It wouldn't surprise me if you slept through the end of the world. I'm glad you made an exception for this occasion." The smith told the panting newcomer as he climbed on the couch besides him, relief, more so than he'd liked to admit, showing through in his voice.

"Wouldn't want to feed the bastards. Fleeing fed, energetic monsters is hard. Harder than wasting ones." He managed to squeeze through his ragged breaths as some kind of explanation for this minor miracle.

Erica was watching the two bicker with apparent amusement as the adrenaline started to wear off and a traveling routine settled in.

Rickert was doing another check of the equipment to ensure everything was battle-ready, his years of experience with the White Hawk showing.

He wasn't really disturbed by the looming invasion of trolls as much as being slightly concerned about Erica's safety.

More so than everything else it provided an opportunity to test his newest inventions on live targets, the mounted crossbow being chief among them. Rickert also had the gut feeling that he'd be able to meet Griffith once more in the coming weeks now that he was on the road again.

_Perhaps this time, I'm able to glimpse his true nature._He thought as he was checking the bundles of particularly vicious looking bolts.

**OoOoO**

The next waking moment after the Enoch's welcoming party into the flying death lizard slaying league I registered, was when I heard the typical combination of a wet impact and shattering pieces of ice. Looking at my hands, augmented with icy claw, a pulse of urgency ran through me. If even a mere wyvern attacking me in full armor could make the Mantle go full paranoia mode, it would be only a simple matter of getting into a life or death scenario for it to go full ballistic.

What disturbed me even more than the increased activity of the Mantle, was how I was slowly starting to react on instincts, bypassing my consciousness if I was caught unaware for some reasons. With extreme prejudice. I really only truly awoke after the ex-dream eater had hit the stone wall.

I stealthily moved to my armor and gear, remembering which strap went where and in which order. As much as I hated to burden Sig with the aftermath of my organic, single-use alarm clock, I wanted to make a quiet getaway. The visitors who had seen the back flipping action of the wyvern had any right to think I'd be dead and being seen up and about by the wrong person would only bring up unfortunate questions of the inquisitive kind. Besides, I didn't want to risk certain people convincing me to stay just a _little_ longer.

"We're really going then, Harry?" A sudden voice behind my back, one that was too loud for any form of subterfuge, startled me as I had arrived at putting on my greaves.

"And I'd like to do it without people noticing" I hissed while breaking away the ice that held one greave in a literal icy grip. "Don't look at me like that, I'll miss Erich and the other kids as well."

"Why are you leaving without proper goodbyes then?" Toot asked, his eyes somehow bigger than they normally were.

"Do you have any ideas how we could prevent Erich from following us if he knew we were leaving?" I asked the pouting pixie as I messed around with the various clasps on the defrosted greave on my leg.

"Well you could simply-" Toot-Toot began, the glassy, teary look in his eyes replaced by one of hopeful mischief.

"Learning how to fly without pancaking isn't an option." I interrupted him as I moved to fiddle with the next greave. "Even if I got to the point where the sylphs listened to the spirit of my flight related requests instead of the letter, Erich would have also mastered it. And he will be faster. That boy has to be half air elemental himself. Besides, I doubt that the blending potion is able to make people ignore a flying man in exotic armor."

Erich's desire to fly and willingness to listen to him had lessened Toot's evangelizing about the wonders of flight and his desire to convert me. Now that he realized that he would have to disband Enoch's windy imp duo, the preaching would resume in full force.

"We can't stay, Toot. I don't want to see what happens when someone has to wake me and besides, there won't be any true pizzas in these parts for the foreseeable future." I reminded the down-struck Pixie.

At the mention of pizza, an absentminded need flashed through Toot's eyes and I could swear that drool started to collect at the edges of his mouth.

"We both have people waiting for us." I pressed on, both trying to move him into action. "Don't you want to test your mettle with Lacuna after this extended period of intensive training? Recount your exploits to fair Lady Tinkerbelle?"

I finally managed to fasten the last of the clasps after some additional defrosting action on them to have them actually function as intended and moved on to the next, luckily ice free, items on the list.

Having to deal with the troubles of wearing some kind of actual armor had, at the very least, one effect. Those brightly colored spandex superhero suits looked a lot more attractive now. At least they didn't have to actually plan their wardrobe changes a week or so in advance.

"I suppose. Both would be nice." Toot-Toot admitted reluctantly.

"But I suppose, it would be rude of us to truly leave without a single trace. Our dear friends might even fear something happened to the both of us…" I said, not sure when the grin snuck on my face.

"And we wouldn't want our friends to miss us too much, would we?" Toot continued, his sheer mischievousness, unable to be contained in his eyes and own grin, materializing small, curved horns in an impressive red.

"Lieutenant-general Toot-Toot, as a last service to Enoch village I want you to make clear that we left voluntarily and to do it in such a manner that they won't miss us too much when morning comes. After I'm done donning my armor we shall meet at the gates."

"Yes, my lord!" Toot-Toot belted, too loud for my taste, as he saluted with the precision and crispness of the fae. "One thing, lord. Are there restrictions on my… delayed communicative actions?"

"As long as it doesn't critically impair the defense force or cause unavoidable and permanent destruction of property, you have a carte-blanche lieutenant-general." At the mention of property destruction he gave me a look critical enough to earn him toilet duty in a regular army.

"Dismissed."

I had barely finished vocalizing my last 'command' when Toot vanished with enough velocity to produce impish after images.

Now that I could resume concentrating on wrestling with even more clasps without Toot distracting me, the realization of just what I had unleashed in my eagerness to get moving. I could only hope that the villagers would forgive me if I'd ever have to return to this humble speck on the map. If they did, I'd be looking forward to their recounting of the events. Sure, it would be impossible for Toot-Toot to keep quiet about his exploits, but considering his sometimes alien concepts of importance and morality, I was sure that I'd be hearing two entirely different stories.

By the time I was struggling to fasten the brigandine, I was once again wishing I had a traditional superhero suit. Spandex might give you little to no protection, but most who wore spandex didn't need it anyways - or at least thought they didn't - so that wasn't much of a problem. Even if it was, more often than not there were possibilities of strengthening the outfit somehow. Last time I checked, even the best regular dusters weren't bullet-proof.

At least they were able to change outfits before the villain of the week destroyed the earth, established world domination or set some other diabolical plan in notion that would somehow lead to the former two. With my current outfit, I would have needed a considerate villain that gave me the heads up at least half an hour in advance. That's also ignoring the possibility of wearing the outfit under regular clothes and the ability to move around in it like there was no tomorrow.

At last I fastened the manacle with a stoic grimace after I was done securing and double checking my other tools and magical knickknacks. When the pain had faded somewhat, I turned to face the door where Sig was standing in the doorway, watching me with a bemused smile.

"I guess, my plan to sneak out unnoticed as a bust then?" I asked my unsolicited audience.

"I'm a light sleeper." Sig answered as the smile developed into a true grin. "Besides, I worried about you. The cursing suddenly dropped, so I feared something might have happened."

Seeing the normally stoic smith this merry without chemical aids put some reservations I still harbored to rest. Even though my stay wasn't planned for, I couldn't say I had much in the ways of regrets. The inhabitants of Enoch village had learned how to fend for themselves and the ease borne from cautious self-confidence and newly found hope Sig displayed was prime example of the positive influence this particular detour. I would not be able to do much more for them without causing some kind of trouble. Besides, even beyond the signs of my demonic stalker starting to stir again, I now had to fear that Toot-Toot had some kind of corrupting effect on these people.

"I guess, you aren't here to stop me." I suggested interpreting Sig's relaxed body language.

"No. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to even if I wanted to." He replied, a chuckle building up in him at the thoughts of him trying to stop me. "I agree that you wouldn't be able to outrun Erich without a head start."

"Looks like I didn't have a chance to get away cleanly if I tried, huh." I half muttered before seeing the remains of the biological alarm clock. "When you're up and about anyways, could you try and find a scrap to write on? I'll go clean up the mess."

With a short nod, Sig left the room while I went and looked for the bucket and washing cloth myself. As I had to use both daily, their standard but often acoustic precarious storing places were quickly checked and the items in question were retrieved.

I, wizard of the White Council, Winter Knight of the Unseelie Court, dressed in full battle gear was on my knees collecting the final halve frozen giblets after having scrubbed the wall when Sig returned from his quest to get me something to write on.

"I don't have scraps left. What do you need it for? Perhaps I could find anything else to use."

I stood up with the slightest bit of wobble thanks to the added gear, giving me a bit time to think before actually replying.

"I wanted to leave Heinz a note, but if you feel like it, I could just ask you to pass it along."

Heinz wouldn't need any help figuring out that we had left - Toot-Toot would make sure that couldn't happen - but I had been kicking myself ever since I had passed over one of the most fitting opportunities to share my extended wisdom.

I handed Sig the bucket filled with bloody water, bits of incubus, and a decently sized stick as he nodded, beckoning to continue.

"Tell him to remember that with great power comes great responsibility."

"And, it'll make sense to him." He stated after an all too short flash of confusion. "Not that it matters anyways. Sounds like a good words to live by."

I blamed the clean air and the lack of cholesterol coursing through my body for the earlier lapse of judgement. At least, the mistake was now rectified and this world wouldn't remain deprived of the Toa of Peter Parker.

On the positive side. This way I could indulge a bit more in wizard crack, which effect had sadly begun to diminish. Probably due to over-exposure of my awesome wizardly power.

"Do you have anything you want to get off your chest? If I don't leave now, I get the feeling that Erich might just manage to catch up to me." I said as I put on my helmet.

I still didn't like having to wear anything on my head, but I saw that it was necessary to at least try to begin to fit in. Besides, the enchantments were a nice bonus and during the day I could hang it from my staff.

But tonight I was going to haul ass. Big times.

"Not really. The only thing left for me is to once more thank you and wish you the best of luck." He answered, offering his hand.

I wanted to take it, but he surprised me one more time. Instead going for the underarm and pulling me close into a one armed bear hug. When I overcame the small shock of his hands actually reaching around the entirety of my limb, vambrace and all, I replied and kind, managing to surprise him one last time with my strength.

"Thank you for saving us. For teaching us how to fight. For giving us hope." He said after a short strength measuring contest and disengaging.

"I would do it again in a heartbeat. Nobody deserves to die without a fighting chance." I replied as I reached into a bag to get the blending potion I made before actually falling asleep. "Watch everyone's back, Sig."

"Of course. Take care." Sig replied and I took a gulp of the aggressively bland liquid.

The color drained from the world and soon Sig stood in monochrome, looking around, shrugging and taking the bucket o' fun to where ever he collect it.

I didn't know exactly what he planned to do with it, but I had seen him experimenting with integrating other monster parts in his work as well. I was too busy with training, venting, and fitting my armor as he really began with it. My best guess would be that it could be refined into some sort of ritualistic glue.

I walked out of the smithy and wait my way towards the gate where I'd have to get past the current shift of Enoch's Defenders.

We tried to think of a better name, but in the end tastes, language, and Lize had hindered that notion.

My suggestion of Mountain Spear was deemed to be too aggressive and Warden couldn't translated cool and relevant enough in German. Toot's suggestion of Toot-Toot's Legion met a similar fate as being mistaking for the 'death death legion' didn't feel like a wise move.

I didn't agree with them trying to name themselves Band of the Wolf as to minimize their association with me if things went south for me in the future. More so when they told me that it was a homage to the Band of the Hawk. The mercenary group that shook Midland to their foundations and whose leader had clawed his way to the top of the food chain as king, was not something that you wanted to get interested in your humble village. Especially with their close ties to the church, prophesy, and the rumors trickling in form the newly appeared Falconia. As in appeared out of thin air after some giant battle. Around the time I got sucked into this bizzaro-world.

Then there was also that monstrous hawk I Saw in the misadventures that brought me to Enoch in the first place.

I was also more than a bit wary that the ever present source of magic I felt was in the general direction of said newly risen capital.

The final name was decided when Lize had enough of what she called bickering, calling it a waste of time, and declaring that Enoch's Defenders would do and leaving.

I couldn't help to smile remembering the faces of the others present, especially Alfred's. It was clear who was in command of the forces.

As I walked through the now familiar alleys, the weight of the armor reassuring me, my thoughts wandered to everyone waiting at home. Then they continued their hike and reminded me of the Mab's certain displeasure of missing her new and shiny Knight.

I shuddered at my minds betrayal and almost missed the various items of clothing that newly decorated the alleys in very inventive ways.

I redoubled my step towards the gate. I didn't want to feel the aftermath of Toot's pranking spree and, more importantly, I didn't want to give him the time to hatch even more schemes.

The wall came into sight as I dodge some of the patrols going around the village making sure that flying abominations had a much harder job to take them by surprise as the difference really hit me. The panicked desperation of the first night was replaced by relaxed vigilance. Gone were the improvised spears, replaced by actual, silver tipped ones and quivers full of deadly arrows, and water and rations to keep the troops alert were distributed strategically.

As long as I could drag my immortal stalker's attention away from Enoch they would be able to handle most of the threads thrown against them. In the worst case scenario even human ones.

I approached the wall while hearing the occasional bark from Elisabeth and made it up the stair, avoiding a grayed out villager.

"So boss, ready to go?" Toot-Toot asked, previously having landed on my shoulder and looking far less pouty than before.

"Yes." I answered, taking in the view of the sleeping village a final time before turning towards the edge.

"Parkour!" I shouted as I faulted over the said edge.

I rolled off the landing and stood back up in time to hear a slight noise coming from the wall where I had jumped off. Glancing back I saw Franz, in color, giving a slight salute before the color drained again and he resumed his vigilante watch.

"Let's go Toot." I said to the floating pixie besides me as I began a run towards the outer edge of the light the torches threw.

Outside the range of the lights I stopped and braced myself. I removed the manacle and Winter surged back, roaring, into my consciousness. Surprisingly it was less cranky as I thought it to be, instead it filled we with joyous anticipation to resume the journey.

With a wolfish grin on my face I changed as technicolor light danced in the background and alarmed shouts reached my sensitive ears.

If Toot-Toot's action were too subtle - somehow - to clue them in what happened this would probably help them piece it together in the morning.

The pulse of magic wasn't only due to Winter's eagerness to get moving again, but also hoping it would get the attention of whatever entities where nearby. As a last gift, I'd could at least try and give them a quiet night.

I started running with a familiar, giggling figure riding my slightly fancier back.I almost pitied the nasties who'd have the bad luck encountering me tonight. Almost.

Accelerating even further elicited joyous whoops from my passenger and I decided to join him howling into the night as I barreled towards the mountain pass, the magic anomaly and then, hopefully, home.

**OoOoO**

It felt good to be moving again.

Running through the night, relying solely on moonlight and my improved senses, worked soothed my ever present worries while the cold air surrounding me invigorated Winter with a tranquil belonging where I could swear that I was leaving pointed, icy paw prints along the way.

Which was fine. Those prints would be gone come morning and if they had manage to draw away some supernatural threats from the village, I would be able todo them a final favor.

As I ran, occasionally making slight detours to navigate over particular interesting rock formations, telling myself it was to make it more difficult for certain villagers -Erich mainly- to track me, I began to realize that at least a bit of my earlier reluctance to leave probably came from missing home and every single ones of my friends and family and substituting said longing with gradually built habit and familiarity in Enoch. I knewthey would be fine - probably more so than I'd be - and with that many good people they would continue to improve.

The only true dangers they would face was the overwhelming forces of darkness, which were unlikely to gather without a higher force directing it, or a mortal authority. In both cases I'd be a burden to them. Either by being a danger magnet or as difficult to hide wizard with weird mannerisms and a tendency to speak his mind.

Meanwhile, the only thing that reminded me of the hostility this pocket dimension fostered towards yours truly was the occasional flicker of movement in the corner of my eyes and the occasional troll or goblin that had the bad luck of crossing my path. These would meet a swift and, for them, unexpected end as they were suddenly dragged along by what they thought to be their next meal until their throats gave in.

Which was to say they barely endured long enough to be dropped backwards from where they stood.

Toot-Toot had quieted down shortly after we were out of sight of the village and if the snoring that was the only sound keeping my company in the mountain wonderland was any indication, he even managed to fall asleep. Regardless of my regular shenanigans of the parkour variety.

Another clue was the slow warm and regular breathing I felt in the nap of my neck.

I stopped when we came across a brook on the way down into the next valley that opened up towards the hilly lowlands on the horizon. I changed back,taking care that the still sleeping Toot-Toot didn't experience a too rude awakening. No sense in needlessly callinghis wraith down upon me. I shouldn't have worried though as he managed to end up laying in between my neck and the collar of my impressive new duster without his regular breathing missing a single beat.

Having changed back and regaining access to my regular palette of colors I was rewarded by one hell of an impressive sight.

"Hell's bells" I whispered as I took in night sky in its entire, untarnished glory.

I had too many problems in the first few days to really appreciate the sight. Inside Enoch, I mostly had something else to do, usually fighting, and when I wasn't active, there were always light sources around that also changed colors and intensity, masking some of the sky in night blindness. As a wolf, I saw the world mainly in shades of gray, far more than fifty, with much muted greens and blues thrown into the mix. It didn't lenditself for stargazing and to be honest, I was more focused on the way ahead of me than the night sky.

But now, I was in full capacity of human color vision without a single artificial source of light in sight. The sea of stars was simply breathtaking. Even back on the Ozarks there was enough light coming from the distance to block out the faintest stars and dimming their colors.

I ate some jerky, this one coming from those overgrown warthogs with death wishes,to regain some energy so I could last until sunrise without too much of a hassle. Sure, I didn't really felt like I needed it, but I by now I knew that this was probably the Mantle numbing said need. It would probably do just that until it was nearly too late.

I was able to tear away from the panorama and turned to drink some of the crystal clear water the brooklet carried. As I put my handin the water Ifelt a familiar aura touching me through the countless undines that were dancing through the small stream.

"Coming out of your way to say your goodbyes, Lady of the Deep Water?" I spoke, concentrating on my wizardly senses.

In response the undines around my hand began to move more playfully and I felt the aura push once more.

"I'll take that as a yes." I answered. "Look out after the village, I'm pretty sure it's beneficial for everyone involved."

"Harry, I hate to interrupt your raving lunatic practice, but a few birds decided that you look like a tasty snack they can share." Toot informed me half awake, apparently having woken up very recently.

I didn't look around, instead choosing to stay just as I was when the birds decided to group up. In the dark of the night, I wouldn't be able to see them anyways. At least not enough to really do something about it.

Instead I focused my wizardly sense in the sky, assuming the thread would at least be partially magical in nature. It's not like a nearly seven foot tall figure would be the prey of many ordinary flying predators, besides I knew my luck with these thing.

I quickly found six figures flying in circles overhead. Using fire or lightning would be a bad idea in this situation. I might get them but if some survived my initial attack I'd have to fight unknown flying creature that were both angry and warned while being nearly blind myself.

I felt annoyed by the impudence of the lowly creatures looking down on me, confusing hunter with prey. I felt the touch of the Lady on my submerged water and I began channeling energy into both my staff and the water.

"_Infriga!"_I declared with enough indignation to nearly transform it in a snarl.

Water shot up from the brooklet, shooting through the arid, cold mountain sky, dousing the entities. The water froze as soon as it made contact with the creatures skin and they plummeted out of the sky.

Six variations of the same sickening mixture of shattering ice, breaking bones and tearing tissue was hear all around me.

I took the sip of water I wanted to take before the suicidal party decided to interrupt me, stood up and walked towards the nearest wannabe predator.

Channeling energy into my staff illuminated the creature brightly enough to make out the details. They looked like the unholy combination of an owl, a bat, and a lizard. Too large eyes, filled with cold hatred and unbridled horror, set in a large head with a dish-shaped face equipped with a wicked beak. The wings looked like they belonged to some overgrown bat with particular good manicure and the claws ended in ridiculously large talons. The creature's image was completed by a scaly hide and a whip-like tail.

With a stab through the eye deep into its brain,I put the slightly twitching form out of its misery. Interestingly, I noticed that the ice seemed to simply give way to let the Longinus pass.

The other creatures met the same fate, one of them having tried to twitch away in order to save itself by the time it was its turn.

Having dealt with flying pests,I drank some more, being glad that brain freeze protection was a nifty feature that came with the Winter Knight package.

The corpses would likely be devoured by one of the nasties that were stalking me from a safe is if there were actually some still following me. The lack of a terrestrial attack during my short rest made me think that either they were more patient as I thought they'd be or that a fight had broken out over who had dibs on my tasty wizardly ass. Knowing how unlikely it was that different kinds of nasties would work together without something powerful forcing them, my bet was on the latter.

I said my thanks and goodbyes to the Lady of the Deep Water,changed back to my wolf form and resumed my journey down the mountain and into the valley.

"You really should take care to not get used to discussing stuff with invisible beings. People might get the idea that you've been hit on the head one too many times." Toot-Toot said while finding his sweet spot on my back.

I reminded him that he was invisible to many people as well. Doubly so inbizzaro-world, where they had their magic assisted weirdness censor.

At least, that was what I wanted to say. What came out of my muzzle was a weird mix of snarls and barks that didn't sound particularly healthy.

"A good point, but I could actually choose to punish those who think you're crazy." He answered, making some yanking motions as if pulling some imaginary cheeks.

I informed him that it didn't really help my cause too much, which was translated into a whining bark.

I had seen him doing all sorts of things with bewildered new arrivals who didn't see him,ranging from hovering in front of them waving to hair pulling and cheek pinching while they were still somehow able to ignore him.

"But it would be funnier. For me at least." He said, having finally found his spot again and starting to doze off again.

I choose to be the wise one and drop the conversation so he could sleep and instead be grateful that he had reminded me -indirectly -of the fact that I had to be careful when talking to him in company with vanillas.

Toot-Toot being rested and in a good mood was in my best interest anyways. He would watch out that I wouldn't be killed when I caught some shut-eyes myself after dawn.

I continued my descent in silence and mostly without any opposition. Mostly.

During one of my shortcuts straight down (parkour!), I noticed a weird, round lump clambering to one of the boulders I jumped off. It was a distinct different gray than, smelled a bit like sea food and scuttled the tiniest amount.

I thought not much about it as I passed the weirdly misplaced creature and wanted to continue my way down in my simple, controlled manner.

Then I got hit by what felt like a stone basketball, making me stop to regain control over my momentum. Looking around what hit me, I saw an overgrown lobster, covered in stony plates laying on its back, playfully wiggling his eight legs and two shovel like claws. It smelled the same as the lump I just passed and graciously ignored. It also _looked _at me exuding an odor I learned to associate joy and contempt.

In a fit of rage I punted the impudent creature into the nearest rock wall with a snarled force spell. The cannonball lobster simply curled up and rolled back down the wall towards me. Then I saw dozens of similar lumps move and I realized that I had made a bad choice.

I began running when the first rolled itself up in such an explosive fashion that the he was literally launched towards me with a scary velocity.

One of those psycho lobsters wasn't a problem. Hell, under normal circumstances even this amount would be far from enough to even make me winded. Under normal circumstances the worst they could do was knock me over and bruise me a bit. Annoying? Yes, and mildly painful as well but nowhere near life threatening.

The story was a bit different on a steep, treacherous, windy mountain slope with unsure footing and plenty of opportunities to blindside me. I doubted that the wild mountain sylphs would respect the fact that I had a fleshy mass enough to not pancake me, making flight into a desperate last resort. One I'd very much liked to avoid.

So I dashed down the mountain with breakneck speed, zig-zagging to narrowly avoid flying psycho lobsters that assaulted me relentless. I moved fast enough to attract a swarm of sylphs without actively channeling magic with whom I then fed a tiny amount of magic, just in case I messed up somehow.

The horrifying chase continued right until I reached a plateau near the forest line. There, I changed and was able to finally retaliate.

Let's just say that gravity magic at the end of a rocky slope wasn't my best idea and that it didn't have much effect on the cannonball lobsters. Also the Spear of Destiny slid off their stony carapace without leaving a single mark. On an unrelated note, their cooked flesh tastes rather good.

During the remainder of the night, I was able to find the road again and find a nearby clearing in the forest it ran through.

There, Toot and I exterminated the few monsters that actually managed to follow us during the wild chase down the mountainside as well as the few more aggressive monsters and territorial beast in the forest who were still active that close to dawn.

That was expected. What I didn't expected was to be almost blindsided by a trio of shadow clad trees, viciously whipping vines, roots and their gnarled branches at me while I was dealing with the other pests.

The realization that I just might had annoyed this world's equivalent of the Huorn with my dynamic entry into this pocket my dimension crossed my mind. That and my more creative ways to blow off steam in Enoch.

A wise man would have sought a non-fiery way to dispatch them as not to anger them further.

I burned them out of sheer reflex before I finished the thought.

After very carefully burning the corpses -mainly orcs, overgrown spiders, and the occasional overgrown fire-breathing chicken - to avoid attracting vanilla predators, I finally leaned back against a tree and shut my eyes, knowing that Toot-Toot would keep guard and wake me a couple of hours later. I was only able to worry about more ninja trees attacks before exhaustion took over and I slipped away into a slumber where I was greeted by Ignatz.

**As a friendly reminder, depending on the results (both the forums and according to feedback in the reviews), the name of the fic might be changed to 'Unholy Saviors'. Don't be confused if it happens.**

**Reviews and constructive criticism increase my productivity and will improve the story in the long run. So please, leave one.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me.**

**The upcoming chapters are going to be interesting considering Miura finally decided that there was something more important in life than the Idol Masters series. I'll try to incorporate as much of the new chapters into the fic but naturally it'll start to diverge from Berserk canon at the latest when Dresden saunters into it. Okay, more likely charges into it, flinging spells, and violently derailing the canon plot as the monster he has pissed off this time is hunting him.**

**Christian. 1: Harry obtains the spear at the end of Skin Game.**

**That out of the way, please do enjoy the chapter.**

The sun conspired to wake me up all too soon by sneaking a concentrated ray of morning sun directly into my eyes. The slight coppery smell in the air, ensured that this assault on my senses was enough to tear me from my light slumber.

I hadn't slept long and what I hoped was my guilty conscious – instead of something of the supernatural kind - about having been forced to kill on the second day had prevented me from truly resting. But there hadn't been any incubi actively trying to torment me. No bludgeoning of the many instances of guilt, regrets and sorrows that had accumulated over the years I've been alive until I was forced to deal with the nuisances.

It was the best bit of shut eyes I had gotten the last two weeks or so. As to the Ignatz voluntary appearance in my dreamscape, I had the feeling it had been my id, or asshole-me doing. I had tried to ignore it, not really trying to identify the tangled mess of emotions, shifting the blame to the Mantle.

Beyond the guilt and regret there was a certainty and apprehension. As much as the Mantle made me into more of a predator, aggressive or calculating as the situation demanded, but with a clear preference to the former, it was still I that had the final say on calling the shots. It was me or my subconscious that came to the conclusion that lethal force was needed. Sure, Winter might have agreed at that moment and the unfortunately necessary work Mab had to do shifted the balance ever so slightly towards more final solutions. But still, it was me that decided the course of action, decided to pull the proverbial trigger.

And with a somber flash of insight, I realized that I'd be faced with similar problems in the future. This pocket-dimension was ruthless to its inhabitants as the many stories I had heard in Enoch testified. War was a constant factor and famine, disease, and bandits followed in its wake wherever it decided to go. Then there were stories straight out of horror. Stories about fanaticism transcending mere religion, stoking the fear and moving people into doing horrible things to each other. Stories about girls being carted off as tribute to a lord, never to be seen or heard of again. Sure, I took the stories with a grain of salt, but there were too many common elements between them, regardless whether they were told by one of the villagers or by one of the few distant travelers, to even disregard the majority of them. On top of that, the supernatural side had decided to become much more active ever since the event that trapped me here alongside it all. I was lucky that I came across Enoch, the village that was already saved once before with the help of magic and had made its inhabitants far more open to the concept than anywhere else.

This world had taught its people to err on the side of caution to survive. To be pragmatic and ruthless.

And I had better be prepared to meet in kind if I ever wanted to return home again.

They would be willing to mobilize an army just to go after me if they'd thought me to be dangerous enough and had the means to do so. The influence of the Holy See order reached far and wide and had accumulated wealth similarly to the Roman Catholic Church of old back home. They would happily provide the means to solve a walking heretic problem like me.

I would rather fight an arena packed with vile hell spawn than to go against even a small group of organized, vanilla human warriors.

Beyond not wanting to kill mortals, I had also had the problem that much of my magic would be useless during such a fight. I only had the latter part of the 'for they are subtle and quick to anger' down and accidentally killing someone with magic, in this world, wouldn't be as much as a slippery slope as much as a potential free drop towards becoming McCackles Von Doom.

That left only the Mantle and my martial arts training. Sure, I could overwhelm most fighters easily if I fought them alone. The problem with that was the Mantle's near berserker like instincts, pushing me to be on the offensive all the time, arguing that I wouldn't need defense if the enemy died fast enough. I didn't have experience to completely fight against it or work with it in the heat of close quarter combat which left me open often enough, giving opportunities to veterans of group combat.

While I put my usual enchantments on my new, stylish duster, they were weaker than the ones on my old one. Making lasting enchantments was difficult enough, the time and energy you needed to invest to strengthen them rose exponentially with their power and I didn't have enough of either in Enoch to bring them to my usual levels. Even if they were, I didn't know how long I'd be on the road and the enchantments still needed regular maintenance to remain fully functional. Maintenance I - knowing how much the universe hated me - might not have enough time for.

This meant that I couldn't be sure that my duster would hold if I'd truly had to fight against a group of experienced soldiers. Especially not considering that there might be some that used kinetomancy without knowing it. Or they could just slash my few less protected areas like my hands or face armor and their iron weaponry would cause me a world of hurt.

With the knowledge that I'd probably caused my ID id a minor stroke due to the surprise of actually trying to listen to it, I decided to get moving again. I'd be potentially fleeing bizarro-world sooner, which would give me better odds not having a stress test performed on the Duster. I stretched my limbs and stood up with a grin.

I opened my eyes and was greeted by the cause of the metallic smell.

"Good morning, Toot." I greeted the pixie. "I see that there's been some unwanted attention."

"One of those bears thought you looked tasty." He flashed me a smile, showing too many teeth to be reassuring especially together with the few specks of crimson on his gleaming armor. "I convinced him otherwise."

Looking around, I the signs of a short struggle and two sets of footprints made by the same beast. The ones leading away looked like the bear had run away in a great hurry, limping.

I recognized the blood splatters occasionally covering the broken and trampled foliage as ones typically found with very high speed cuts as well as those typical of arterial bleeding.

I whistled in awed admiration. "Looks like it didn't have a chance. Anything else happened while I was out? Ninja trees, perhaps?"

"It ran away before I really started." Toot replied, containing his pride with some difficulty. "A couple of merchants with their personal guards already moved past us on the street going towards the mountain pass. They were discussing what kind of materials they'd like the buy. As to the Huorns, It looks like those three were the only ones in the neighborhood. That doesn't mean that there aren't any left at all though."

And the remaining ninja trees would probably not appreciate how I dealt with those three. I only hoped I wouldn't have to deal with Smokey Bear on top of them.

I grunted. "It seems that tales about Enoch have started to spread. Let's just hope they'll be able to keep out of trouble."

"They'll be fine. After all, they had far less trouble dealing with their wyvern as you had with yours, Harry."

"They also had a good distraction working for them!" I answered, chewing on some jerky and feigning indignation. "Besides, the green one seemed to be more interested in showing off acrobatics than roasting stuff with fireballs."

It was hard bearing any jealousy for being out played by the villagers. I was too proud on the progress of the Defenders, who only a mere month ago had decided that they had enough of being hunted. And it was a joy to see the tools and weapons I developed being used that effectively.

That knowledge made the upcoming needling of Toot and –when I returned home- Karrin much more tolerable.

"Whatever makes you feel better about yourself, boss."

Having checked and secured the various bags and gear I carried around, I made my way to where I remembered the road to be.

"Sure. Wipe away the last bits of blood you've and we'll hit the road again." I said as I walked out into the open.

I looked back, checking on Toot as he hadn't answered, only to be greeted by the sight of him polishing a last spot on his armor. Then I was hit by a blinding flash. Somehow. Without any light hitting the armor directly.

"Thanks, Harry. Wouldn't want to scare off the few locals that can see me."

I started trudging downhill, muttering something that could be interpreted as an acknowledgment.

Hell's Bells, I'd better get back home before I completely started to go insane.

Okay, even more insane.

We walked until we encountered a picturesque little village in the late afternoon. Or to be more precise, I walked and Toot alternated between flying, hitching a ride in the duster, and cautiously asking whether or not I had changed my stance on the whole flying deal.

We hadn't encountered any travelers going towards Enoch, which made sense considering the time of day we resumed our own journey. They would have provided a welcomed distraction for Toot, though.

I had to wait and brew my blending potion before entering the village. Due to the magical nature of potions, they too had troubles keeping their effects through more than a couple of sunrises. Without knowing when I'd need them, it would be a waste of the preciously limited resources I carried if I were to brew multiple doses.

Even though the overgrown fire chicken seemed common enough, the problem was that I'd need to dry its meat as well. It gave it a bit more flavor which lowered the potency of the potion to a point where I was actually able to get some information out of people. It still took one hell of an effort to get someone's attention, but when I had it, I had a brief window of opportunity to ask for directions or something.

On top of a resource problem, consuming too many potions in a too short amount of time wasn't particularly wise either. Which in turn meant that I wouldn't be able to use them on the roads where I might encounter someone at any time.

I would simply have to hope that travelers had too little time to do something about the power walking loony with the fancy armor. It helped that said armor made my look more buff.

I had also decided to not wear the manacle while actually traveling. There were few scenarios where I'd actually be detected while traveling as vanilla me. Candles and torches were too valuable to waste by burning them in broad daylight and anyone transporting dairy would be easy enough to spot. This meant that I could rely on my body language that screamed _ignore me_ whenever I wished that people wouldn't be able to remember me too precisely.

So I had chosen for micro brewing the small batch that would work for a half hour -give or take a couple of minutes- before entering villages.

"Toot," I asked as we waited for the potion to reach maximum blandness. "Is, it true that Hollywood lied to me and it isn't some bizarro-world exclusive nonsense going on? The grassy bit in the middle of the dirt roads seems to be missing here."

"I know it's hard to imagine, but, yes, Hollywood lied to you. Around this time in our world, you'd generally find worse dirt in the middle of dirt roads." He answered, oozing obviously faking compassion as he shattered my world few in his teacher form.

And he wasn't done with me just yet, the sudden mischievous gleam in his eyes making that clear.

Luckily, the potion was ready at the moment he started talking again, giving me something to focus on, and allowing me to ignore the unwanted history lesson of _Herr Professor_ Toot-Toot.

Next thing you knew he'd tell you that torches had no place in dungeons or other non-sense like that.

I took my golem crafted rock cup and mini kettle from the fire and put out the flames and set it to the side.

I wouldn't enjoy the next part. It was time to put on the manacle again.

I centered myself, focusing on the techniques Lash had taught me just in case the hell lobsters had hurt me more than expected. Toot-Toot's rhythmic, lecturer speech pattern helped greatly with that meditative exercise.

As soon as I felt ready, I closed the manacles unflinchingly, expecting the worse. And, luckily, little happened.

Sure, my upper arms felt like one giant bruise, I was tired, and I felt the Mantle hissing at the small amount of iron that had pierced my skin form its retreat.

In short, with the exception of the last bit, I felt like my good old self at the beginning of one of my cases. I felt normal.

"If you're going to ignore one of my lessons, at least try to look a bit more guilty instead of pleased." The fun sized teacher scolded me before.

I gave him a sheepish grin before I noticed how his cane suddenly accelerated towards forehead.

"Suit yourself. Having your misconceptions be shattered in one fell swoop would have been kinder than having to find out yourself, but who am I to judge."

I simply smiled in return and downed the near tasteless potion while Toot was going off about respect or the lack thereof.

I let my lieutenant-general finish his short lived rant before we moved into tiny town, zeroing in on the only Inn.

I was reminded why I tried the dried meat in the first place. Even with the potion being less potent, it still was a chore to get little bits of disjointed information, many people graying out again before finishing their answer.

As a matter of fact, I hadn't even be able to learn the town's name before I noticed the signs of the potion running out at the same time as my patience.

The end result was that I knew that there was only one significant settlement before leaving the valley, there were no other passes in use, Toot-Toot was amused, and that the visitors of that fateful inn would be confused for the foreseeable future. Especially the Innkeeper himself.

Toot and I were still laughing as I started to run along the ever-widening river on the valley floor. The face he made when he noticed that his ale and wine had somehow swapped caskets was absolutely priceless.

Unshackled once more, I ran and parkoured my way along and over the river, determined to get to the next town by dawn in the hopes of gathering some actually useful information and news there. The town sounded much bigger than the nameless village we left behind. Chances were that I'd find someone paranoid enough that I'd be able to get at least a semblance of a discussion going. Or I might even find someone with a faulty weirdness censor.

As soon as night fell, I changed into my wolf form, knowing I wouldn't look completely out of place by at that time. My speed rose again and, with the exception of two pest control stops, I was able to keep the pace nice and consistent.

At the first light of dawn, I reached the edge of the forest overlooking the town of Dundee.

**OoOoO**

The familiar, rhythmic creaking of the ship was interlaced with thwacks of sticks hitting each other and jeers and laughter of the Sea Horse's idling crew.

Guts was sparring with Isidoro on the ships slightly swaying deck under the watchful eyes of both the merry men of Roderick and his companions turned friends. That was to say Guts mainly stood there, compensating for the ever moving floor, defending against the plethora of strikes Isidoro launched against him from all possible angles. And punishing the boy whenever he got too confident in his attack and left himself open again.

Isidoro had finally completely forgone the notion of trying to copy Guts' imposing manner of fighting, focusing on his agile frame and talent for improvisation instead of seemingly impossible amounts of raw strength and determination. He had the instinct needed to potentially become a great fighter, his ambidexterity alone made him versatile and unpredictable.

Lately, he had even tried to mix in thrown weaponry into his attack patterns to create openings, even going as far to juggle his sword, or stick in this case, into the air, throw a stone from his pouch with his freed up hand, and catching the juggled weapon mid dash only to attack Guts with the stick in his other hand.

Normally Guts would have chided such risky tactics, but the sheer, practiced dexterity Isidoro possessed simply made the seemingly stupid moves work. Less experienced fighters, or such relying too much on instinct, would have been hit by either the projectile or the follow up attack as they left themselves open to defend against the surprise attack. Stones weren't that bad, but Guts knew that it could as well have been a dagger or one of the small bombs flying in his direction. Or any other sharp or deadly object, really.

In the rare occasions when it backfired, the little monkey took it in stride and improvised as if he meant to do it in the first place. Not to mention how little the terrain hindered him while fighting, often even helping him.

And still the boy hadn't considered that talent to be anything special.

However, there were a couple of problems hindering his progress. Even in life or dead situations he wasn't able to take himself serious enough, instead wishing he had the talents of those he considered his superiors or private rivals. He also lacked the conviction to follow through when fighting against humans, subconsciously holding himself back from seriously harming or even killing them. He also had the tendency of showing off when he had an audience, which could be only one person if he wanted to prove himself to them.

Isidoro came running at Guts again, the two stick of different length ready to strike until he came across a hanging rope. A quick motion transferred his 'dagger' between his teeth and he jumped at the rope at an angle, swinging around Guts. He landed, trying to land a low, raking strike at Guts' knee. Guts sidestepped the attack and whacked Isidoro on the head with his own stick before the boy could land the follow up strike with the shorter stick that had reappeared in his other hand.

The final, and perhaps biggest challenge Isidoro faced was the fact that he was sparring against someone who had been forced to practice with the sword since the time he could somewhat physically wield one with difficulty and had landed on the battlefield before the age of ten. Someone who had survived brutal battles and the endless onslaught of monstrous entities that the Mark attracted.

During his violent life, Guts had developed a keen battle sense, knowing what's important during a fight and what flashy movement could be safely ignored.

"Always keep your eyes on the target and be ready to either dodge or defend against their attacks. You left yourself open again." He chided Isidoro, who was nursing his newly acquired bump under a constant stream of encouragement flowing from Puck waving a white cloth in his general direction. "Or go in harder, accepting you're going to take a hit to deliver a stroke that will hurt them much, _much _more. I found that it makes people react poorly."

Guts felt a grin creeping up on him remembering all the pain he endured to land the attack that often turned the tides of battle.

Weirdly the sailors' low, good natured laughter on Isidoro's behalf turned nervous before it died completely. The sole exception being Isma's, the young Merrow watching the Isidoro with interest from her spot on the ship's shrouds, oblivious to the changed mood.

"Come at me once more, Isidoro, and this time without getting distracted by Isma."

The boy's face became beet red at the mention of the newest companion which was elicited a few nervous chuckles from the watching crew, the mood not entirely recovered from earlier. This caused Isidoro's face to redden to an unbelievable degree. Isma meanwhile looked only vaguely confused at the reaction.

This went on until a couple of seconds later, Guts noticed the slightest change in Puck's 'disciple'. His movements became muted and his gaze hardened.

It had taken him who knows how many days of practice since the Sea God was beaten and now, approaching the tow hour mark of this session, Guts could feel true determination coming from his self-proclaimed rival.

The Black Swordsman answered that resolve by assuming a stance for the first time since they started.

His movement caused Isidoro to explode in motion, running off, flanking him towards his blinded side until he came across a group of barrels secured on deck. Isidoro leapt on top of them, only to suddenly change directions abruptly and leap towards him with astounding speed, using the barrels as a foothold to generate the necessary power.

Another stone flew in Guts direction, aimed squarely at his healthy eye. He moved his head to dodge as his already muted vision contracted without warning, filling his field of vision with black streaks as he lost his peripheral vision at the same time.

As his sight worsened he saw Isidoro flying towards him, one stick held high and the other low, both ready to either attack or defend.

With a sense of satisfaction seeing practice beginning to pay off, he swung downwards with his own stick. A violent crack was heard as he swatted Isidoro out of the air glimpsing the form before his vision blacked out completely.

While completely blind, he knew that Isidoro's posture would only allow him to move him in one direction when he landed and only in one way. The boy would have to roll to his right, into his regular blind side. Guts turned slightly to compensate for the roll and struck where he knew Isidoro's head would pop up before he could strike himself.

Only he hit nothing and moments later he was rocked ever so slightly by a precise and forceful blow to his left armpit.

Shocked silence washed over the Sea Horse's deck as people tried to comprehend what just happened.

Guts was equally as impressed. While it wasn't technically an impossible feat, one he would have been able to react to if he had seen it happen, it would need an incredible amount of body awareness and the finest body control to be able to change directions from that position – most of it happening in the split second Isidoro was still in the air after the downward stroke.

The silence was broken as Puck started complementing Isidoro on his mastery of Elven School of fencing, claiming most of the victory in the process.

That broke the wall of silence and the Sea Horse erupted into a cheer with the exception of Isidoro, standing beside Guts, exuding a potent mixture of surprise, disbelieve, pride, joy, and worry.

Guts reached towards Isidoro's head with his non-mechanical hand, ruffling his hair slightly while his vision slowly returned to the point where he could at least see shadows in a sea of gray.

"That's more like it. Well done."

"Uhm, are you alright, Guts. You seemed… Off." The concerned Isidoro asked, quietly, as the sailors were closing in on him to congratulate him.

Weirdly enough, it almost appeared that Puck's antics, bragging and making large claims at the moment, were slowing down the men on purpose.

"The blow does sting a little." Guts answered with a small chuckle as he noticed lithe form moving towards Isidoro through the mass of burly men. "I've had worse. Let's quit for today, it looks like someone wants to talk to you."

Isma reached Isidoro and began to swarm him with questions and showing an intense interest. Isidoro answered, his worries forgotten, by joining Puck in his bragging spree, giving a highly dramatized recounting of the last fight, somehow forgetting how Guts' he thought that it wouldn't have worked if Guts reacted normally.

Guts slipped out of the knot of men and started moving towards the small form of Shierke leaning against the railings.

Midway he felt a stare following him. Turning to the bow, his vision was restored enough to see Serpico's sharp, pensive gaze silently following him before a sound diverted his attention back to watching over the oblivious Casca who was chasing a seagull off the balustrade with childlike glee.

Guts leaned over the handrail and focused his eyes on the horizon.

"It happened again?" Asked the witch in a tone making it much more a statement.

Guts rubbed his eye, color slowly bleeding back into his vision. "Yeah. Has been happening a lot since that business with the Sea God. I think it's getting worse. I can barely feel the wind on my face or smell the salty air. I have to concentrate to make out noises I'd normally have no trouble hearing."

They both stood there in silence, thinking and watching the occasional merrow jump out of the bow wave.

"I don't want you back in that armor, Guts" Schierke finally said, fear audible in her voice. "I don't want to lose you. Nobody wants to."

"I don't want it either. But if I must, I will. What good does it do, knowing how to fight, if you don't use that knowledge." Guts replied shaking his head ruefully. "I don't want to lose any of you and fighting is pretty much the only thing I'm truly good at."

"Don't say that!" Shierke cried out, her voice, while barely more than a whisper, given more gravitas by the hauntingly beautiful song of the merrow bubbling up around the ship.

"I wouldn't worry too much." Guts returned as he carefully embraced the young witch. "The merrow do a good job scaring the things off that few view us as tasty snacks. I don't think we'll see any fighting before reaching Skellig. And as soon we're there I'll ask the king of Elfhelm to see what he can do to my problems as soon as he's done with Casca's."

Schierke relaxed a little at his words. Still she made no attempts to break the embrace.

A concerned shout, followed by disappointed, even petulant, babbling came from the bow as Guts glimpsed how Serpico was coaxing Casca down from the bow spirit with practiced patience.

"Say, how's Farnese fairing and why aren't those two with her?"

A devious smile flashed across Schierke's face. "As preparation for the next phase of her training, I have her visualize a bit more complex objects. Objects that would cause a headache in the untrained trying to even approximate them. I guess she wanted to get rid of the distractions."

'And it would she would have been rather forceful if she managed to get Serpico to leave her completely alone, even on the ship,' Guts thought amusedly.

On the deck Puck and Ivalera had started another loud, bickering fight. Much to the amusement of the crew.

Soon they'd be on Skellig and Elfhelm located on that island, there was joyful anticipation in the air. People on the Sea Horse knew, perhaps through some form of instinct, that the voyage that felt like it went on for years would soon come to an end. Soon they would learn how to cure Casca.

A realization ran through Guts and he groaned softly.

Soon he'd have to deal with hundreds if not thousands of Puck's kin. Suddenly fighting another Sea King looked like a very attractive proposition.

**OoOoO**

The light of dawn came accompanied with a commanding pulse of black magic, potent enough that its oily greasiness rattled me awake through sheer disgust. Considering the lay of the land and the nature of the pulse, it had to have come somewhere form the shadow clad flank on the opposite side of the valley.

I saw Toot-Toot try to unsuccessfully suppress a shudder beside me as the malicious intent followed in its wake, not unlike the worse aftertaste following a bite of a perfectly disgusting dish. I only experienced such an aura once in bizzaro-world, namely during my last encounter with the newly gained, immortal stalker. However, this one seemed to be far more contained, devoid of the wild lust that accompanied the hopefully still mostly dead Dreadlocks.

"I have a _bad_ feeling about this," I muttered out of reflex, the implications of the differences slowly forming a terrifying realization.

Toot besides me had shaken off the influence of the pulse and was scanning the region where it likely came from with disturbing intensity, his hands resting on his blades.

He turned towards me, one hand – the one that rested on the steel sword – pointing to a spot on the opposite mountain. "Look Harry, something's moving there, getting into formation."

I followed his finger and saw an overhang where the shadows where the darkest near the top of the mountain. Focusing on the spot I could vaguely make out shapes moving against a backdrop that seemed... Off.

"I know this is difficult for you, but…" My lieutenant-general started before he was interrupted by an otherworldly pandemonium erupting from the spot he had pointed out.

A deep, ragged whinnying war cry drenched in hatred and bloodlust echoed through the valley. From the point on the mountain where the shapes had – as I now realized – been organizing a dust cloud was kicked up and the otherworldly sound was accompanied by the low rumble of the landslide the forms started. The forms charged straight down, outrunning the avalanche of rocks and boulders that followed the mindless charge towards the fortified town.

By now I could make out their barrel-chested forms, supported by four slender legs propelling the creatures forward with unnatural speed. "Toot, what do your pixie eyes see? Are they what I think they are?"

"Yes, they are. Though something seems to be not right," He answered, too seriously to give me any comfort.

I glanced back up to the spot they started from and noticed that previous weirdness had disappeared, leaving nothing but a mundane but black shadow.

The beasts where two thirds down the mountain when the panicked ringing of bells drifted up from Dundee.

"Considering, I've only ever encountered a murderous centaur with a fabulous dreams of greatness, I have to ask: can unicorns fly?"

"No. They're normally friendly and docile if one ignores the majority having their horns up their ass. I've never heard of this kind of behavior." Toot answered, pushing glasses back up his nose. "They might be weird around virgins, but not a single account of an organized attack."

"So the wall, the drawn drawbridge, and the moat should keep them away, right?" I asked, not sure what stories to believe and uncharacteristically wishing for the best.

I was silently hoping to find a hideaway where I had little chance of impalement, rest my weary bones, and continue on my merry way when the unicorn army was repelled or wandered off when they got bored. If that didn't work, I could always do some creative climbing and finds a way around the town.

I got lucky with Enoch, I couldn't risk halting my trip again, especially over something that should be survivable even without my intervention. If the stories from the merchants coming from this side of the mountains were to be believed, the power of the Holy See would rise the more I pushed towards the nexus of power I had felt like a constant itch since the very moment I was pulled into this dimension. Conveniently said nexus was in the same direction as the holy city Falconia which apparently happened to appear out of thin air at the same time. Pure coincidence I'm sure.

I watched them getting close enough to me and the town that I could actually make out details. As I was observing them, idly realizing that it was that it was the first time I saw these elegant, silver white creatures, another harrowing battle cry erupted from the group.

The horns began glowing menacingly in concert and a ripple went through the flesh of these creatures. The fine fur melted away, revealing rotting flesh, sinew, and bone. Their horns twisted into something far crueler as the single spire they seemed to be in the first place and their muzzles became a vicious caricature of their previous appearance.

A muffled wall of sound, cries of confusion and terror uttered by the defenders of Dundee and amplified by the entire town, hit me moments later as my hairs began to rise.

"I don't think those will be of much use, boss." Toot-Toot replied, his antics dropped.

I watched in horror as fifty unicorns unleashed their magic at the same time. Fireballs arched over the wall with lazy contempt as forked lighting arched towards the unlucky defenders already standing on top of the wall.

Thunderclaps rattled the ground and, after a short pause, a chain of explosions and collapsing buildings was heard.

A stunned silence followed, only marred by the sound of raging fire and further masonry failing. A second later the wails of anguish and loss began, interwoven with cries of primordial panic.

Under the cacophony of terror, the unicorns began repositioning themselves, moving closer to the wall, no doubt preparing another assault. I couldn't let that happen.

"Toot, keep the annoying pests away from me." I snarled at the overgrown pixie who had appeared right beside me, with his silver word in hand eager, predatory eyes gleaning from underneath the helmet. "I'm going to nuke them."

I put on my own helmet, took a stable stance, and pointed the Spear of Destiny with a two handed grip at the creatures that had earned my wrath.

I could think about the consequences later. I was far enough away that anyone on the walls wouldn't be able to make out details and I could make the blending potion.

I began preparing my spell before the undead unicorns reached their new position and began channeling themselves.

I focused on the core of white hot anger that had formed with the first assault, forging it into a basis for my spell.

I then reached out to the elementals swarming the magic laden air, focusing on the salamanders and sylphs to form my attack. I felt golems gently gripping my feet, giving me a stable platform, as my subconscious began to realize just how big I wanted my attack to be. Then followed Winter, directing undines towards me, encasing me and the staff up to my upper hand in a thick layer of ice providing a way to absorb the kick of the upcoming attack.

Soon I noticed the fires in the town shrinking, salamanders being drawn towards me, being funneled into the ball shaped construct that had formed in front of the Spear. I accessed some of the reserves stored in the holy artifact, feeding it into the spell until I knew it was at the limit of what I could control. Barely.

I noted that a plate of ice had formed on the ground around me, connected to the staff with layers upon layers of the same material. I could feel how the spells of the equine warlocks were close to completion. Gritting my teeth, I gazed upon the target and saw that a dozen or so of the undead creatures looked up to me and Toot. They left the formation and started charging me in particular, no doubt having felt the influx of magic. They simply leapt over the river dividing their side of the valley from mine with an uncharacteristic elegance.

"Harry!" I vaguely heard Toot-Toot shout, warning me in case I hadn't seen the incoming danger, before he charged the overgrown ponies himself.

I was a big believer in my usual spears of molten inferno, but the terrain wouldn't allow me to hit too many before they became aware of the attack and caused me hell. So I had decided to not let the property damage I caused during one of my nightly experiments in Enoch go to waste.

Even with the raw amount of mojo I had gathered, apparently the unicorns didn't think it was enough to scatter, believing a party to get rid of the nuisance would be enough.

I felt my face contort in what even the darkest creatures of the Nevernever wouldn't dare to call a smile. They didn't know the final ingredient of the spell.

I infused an amount of Soulfire into the ball, and it became a living, physical thing. White hot and ferociously hungry.

"_Bola de fuego!_" I bellowed as I urged the uncountable number of sylphies swarming all around me to accelerate it, promising a bounty of energy at the end of the journey.

Ear shattering screeching coming from exploding ice erupted around me, mixed with the clap of a sonic boom, as the deadly projectile surged forward, numbing my hands as recoil threatened to tear the staff away. I felt myself moving backwards, a peculiar feeling of being carried backwards at the very edge of my bones' breaking point. I came to a stop a couple of feet away from my original position, two furrows of gauged earth and shattered ice leading back to it.

I felt how suddenly the accumulated magic over at the main force suddenly dispersed startled neighing accompanying it, but it was too late.

My fireball simply punched through two unicorns without slowing and impacted the ground in the middle of their original formation, the thermal bloom incinerating those unlucky to be too close to its path.

The ground exploded outwards and upwards, ripping the undead ponies apart through the sheer force of the explosion and the flying debris. I had to brace myself against the earthquake it created.

Fire followed, howling as it clawed outwards, large reptilian shapes snapping at the surviving unicorns – or pieces thereof – devouring them completely before deflating and blanketing the general area of the newly formed crater with an inferno. The Sylphs followed, dancing with the salamanders getting faster as they went along. The flames died down. It didn't leave behind ashes as much as it utterly destroyed any evidence of cities attackers and glassing the earth where the flash fire came in contact with the earth.

I threw up a shield as I saw the shockwave of the explosion reaching the furthest of the monstrous unicorns coming towards me, staggering it in the process.

I was grateful that the golems still stabilized me as the force rocked me for the instant it passed us.

"_Much_ more interesting than his predecessor." I heard Toot, who had retreated back to my side as he saw my spell flying past, mutter as he threw himself back towards the charging unicorns as I lowered my shield.

I gripped my staff firmly and stepped out of the grooves I had created. A whinny filled with hateful anger escaped the leading beast, slightly larger than the others, its unnecessarily long, serrated horn glowing with collected power in accord with the rest of the group.

I started moving myself, hoping it would throw off the aim of the unicorns. I didn't feel it – yet – but I knew that my little orb of fire had cost me. I had enough juice to carry me through the fight but it wouldn't be enough to sustain a shield that would hold against a dozen fireballs that had leveled parts of the town.

I threw a quick glance to see the undead ponies effortlessly following my movement, their horns now dangerously thrumming with magic. A silver flash streaked across the leading unicorn's head and I heard a dry crack.

For a moment nothing happened and then the magic stored in the broken horn was released violently. The explosion devoured the eerie head of the unicorn and maiming the ones flanking it. Toot-Toot attacked a second time and the scene repeated itself.

By then, the unicorns had wizened up. They let go of their not quite finished spells, diffusing the magical energies as the picked up even more speed. Toot's third strike hit with a crack, silvery flames smoldering where his sword had hit it, but nothing more happened.

I stopped running and faced the six undamaged equine zombies barreling towards me, silently thanking Toot for his tactic. He forced them to abandon their magic, making the playing field much more palatable for me. Yes, they were scary fast and their magic packed a fair punch. Their problem was that the latter needed too much time to prepare making it too easily interruptible as apparently the combined distraction of the mini earthquake and following shockwave had delayed my fiery doom enough that it could be prevented.

The problem with their speed was that it was very much reliant on grip, something that could be easily remedied. I reached out to the undines, asking them to cover the soon-to-be-battlefield with water.

The unicorns reached the wet field under the constant assault of Toot, smoldering wounds appearing across their bodies, focused on areas where most decent creatures had important bits for locomotion and life in general. While it would take a while for he could kill one of the undead this way, but it began hampering their mobility.

I pointed the spear at the nearest unicorn. Toot-Toot saw my motion and was wise enough to get away from the group.

"_Fuego!_" I roared, ripping the heat out of the water all around me.

The wrist thick lance of fire bisected the unicorn and hit one of the incapacitated ones that caught up in the blast, setting it ablaze, ending its artificial life.

The remaining five unicorns neighed in alarm as they were suddenly struggling to find their footing on the freshly made ice. Of course, I could have done the same with a good ice spell, but it would have cost me more. The water elementals had most of the heavy lifting in this case and this method had the added benefit that I could fry one of the bastards at the same time.

Now, I didn't have to risk overtaxing my magic anymore. Now, I could allow the Mantle to let it rip.

"Toot, let's finish this." I growled to the ichor covered pixie.

He rocketed away, towards the group that had begun to adapt itself to the changed arena. I dove deeper into Winter. I would have no need for discipline and fancy technique in this fight. I felt the eager anticipation it had –I had – to establish its dominance over the wretched abominations.

A howl had begun to escape my lips before I had complete changed into my wolf form and assaulted the one unicorn that appeared to be the closest to resuming its attack. A short dash brought me near its mouth filled with shark teeth, I changed back, striking with a vicious upward strike towards its neck.

The Spear of Destiny cut through flesh and bone without the slightest bit of resistance. The decapitated unicorn collapsed to the floor lifelessly. Four remained.

Instinct warned me from the incoming danger from behind. I simply sidestepped out of the way of the anorexic rhino that wanted to impale me with frightening speed and extreme prejudice.

I saw it trying to correct its course, but it could do too little too slowly on the slippery floor. It sailed past me and tried to stop and go for a second attempt.

I had no problems finding my footing, the Mantle finding the spots where I could push off without ever needing to think about it or be careful. I leapt at the unicorn as it had manage to turn around, its rear legs resembling a wheel spin. I impaled its head and with a twist and a turn, the front half of the noggin parted from the rest, finishing the creature off. Three were left.

A noise approached me from the side and I saw that the next one also went for the basic charge, but instead of mindless speed, it stomped down its hooves through the ice securing its footing. The result was that it was merely fast instead of blindingly so and that it could try another attack as it missed.

I sidestepped the unicorn at the last moment, severing its loadbearing leg. The creature snapped at me with its nightmarish maw as it toppled over, sliding along the ground helplessly until it hit its head against a boulder, bringing it to a stop. It struggled on the ground but didn't seem to get up, its head somehow fixated in the awkward position

I sauntered over and much to my horrified surprise, I saw that its horn had embedded itself entirely in the boulder. I parted its head from its body, deliberately not thinking about what would have happened if one of them actually had hit me at their top speed. Only two to be dealt with.

I turned around, half expecting another charge. Instead I was greeted by the sight of a glowing horn, the spell nearing its completion and its owner too far away to prevent it going off.

With practiced motion, I pulled my trusty hand cannon, aimed and pulled the trigger. A .50 caliber, custom-built bullet left the gun and embedded itself in the unicorn's head just below its horn. The salamanders were released with a small, fiery explosion. The explosion damaged the horn enough that it released its energy, amplifying the effect of the bullet as well as causing harm all on its own. The front half simply disappeared and its rear legs, attached to only a bit of the rump and spilled, decaying guts flopped onto the soggy ground. Then it was time to deal with the last unicorn standing.

I scanned the battlefield and realized that I had to rescind the previous statement.

Toot was casually sitting on the horn of what previously was an undead unicorn, waving at me when he I looked at him.

I whistled softly. Of course I was familiar to the phrase 'death by a thousand cuts', but it was the first time I had seen someone taking it literally. Also, I don't think the cutting was normally done by a venomous sword wielded by a merry sky piranha.

The unicorn had been dismembered, chunks of undead flesh cut out of every accessible part of its body, gouged out by two precise strokes. Toot had been thorough, presumably using the same technique repeatedly to part limbs and finally the head by simply sawing through it.

"Impressive work." I said to the beaming lieutenant-general. "Now let's make sure the ones you maimed earlier will stay down and I'll think about what to do next."

"Don't worry about it. I already saw to it while you amused yourself with the other four."

I felt annoyed that he had robbed me of the pleasure of doing it myself to the wretched creatures and realized that I had sunken pretty deeply into the Mantle's influence.

I controlled my breathing and began counting prime numbers in my head, the activity disentangling me from the Mantle's mind set.

I looked up at the wall and saw that a small crowd had gathered on top of the walls, too far away to make out identifying details.

"Let's retreat into the forest, loop around to the other side before they send out a party to find out what happened." I said. "I'll brew a blending potion and we'll escape to the other side through the city. Keep an eye out for people following us when we're in the woods."

Toot-Toot simply saluted and I surveyed the fields a final time before I began walking.

It was an otherworldly landscape. One side of the valley was a frozen wonderland tastefully decorated with the body parts of creatures from nightmares, the other had patches of smoldering grass and debris surrounding a gleaming crater. It was the first time I could see my handiwork. The angle of my fireball was shallow enough that the majority of the rubble was catapulted into the wall of the city and the mountain with only a little flying straight up and becoming a danger of causing collateral damage. I knew I was lucky that they were far enough away from Dundee that this attack could be done with only a very small risk, but still, I couldn't help feeling proud at how precise I had been. For my rigorous standards.

With pride energizing my steps, we set our plan into motion

I spend the time waiting for the potion to finish idly chatting with Toot, mostly about listening to his exited recounting of the battle and discussing which pizza he'd like when we returned home, and trying to ignore the subtle signs of fatigue that the mantle couldn't suppress entirely.

I had also decided to go the extra mile and use the same technique I used to transform into a wolf with my gear to draw the most important or outlandish items inside me before setting out. I wanted to look as harmless as possible in case something went wrong with the potion. I had the feeling that the potion would be less effective in the wake of such a terrifying event and didn't want to get into troubles by bumping into someone by accident and be unable to slip away thanks to looking like the Games Workshop's interpretation of a warrior priest. One with a very shiny spear at that. Sadly that meant that I only had my tunic, my duster, the bag with basic materials and rations, my water skin, and a straight looking stick I found on me as I made my way towards the town. It felt weird, and I hoped nobody would notice my boots that looked decidedly battle ready or the faint markings the enchantment runes of my absorbed equipment caused.

And, of course, the wretched thorned manacle. I had prepared myself when I put it on, but the sheer scope caught me by surprise. My joints ached, especially my elbows and shoulders, my muscles felt like they took a beating and I was so very tired.

And so I shambled through the lowered drawbridge an hour after setting my plan in motion, ignored by the masses, having no difficulties to pretend to be harmless.

I walked past the ruined parts of the town, an obnoxious mixture of cooked flesh, ashes, offal and death strongly threatened to gag me. Toot must have sensed that it wasn't the time for idle speak as he was thankfully quiet as I walked through the death zone, concentrating on calming me.

My fears of the potion being less effective proved to be true. The people were less grayed out than usual and I saw the occasional spike in color. Nobody had luckily managed to completely focus on me and I could move along being safely ignored, but I was glad for my precaution, how uncomfortable the might be.

We reached the middle of the town when thought hit me. "Toot, tell me, what kind of emotions do you pick up in the crowd?"

The pixie looked puzzled for a moment, before he answered. "Grief, fear, anger, hopelessness… but also anxiety, paranoia, even."

"Stars and Stones, we have to get out of here. Quickly." I said. "I had expected the first few, but anxiety and even paranoia isn't normal so quickly after battle. The people fear what to come."

I hadn't realized the importance of it at first, but the people I came across were looking feverishly looking around, trying to fade into the background. There were also too few people on the streets trying to help out. They were afraid of something, or, someone. They feared some kind of retribution.

The felt the answer coming close to forming a cohesive thought when I heard a voice coming from behind.

"You were the one that saved us." Spoke the young man in quiet reverent tones.

He was fully saturated, trying to meet my eyes.

"Saved from what?" I asked, desperately trying to mime ignorance. "I don't know what happened here, mister…"

"Call me Angus."

"…Angus, but I only got here. I noticed something strange happened, but I'm but a simple wanderer…"

"Bullshit," The young man interjected. "I saw the one standing on the field. He was about as large as you, sir. And you're talking to an armed elf in a strange tongue."

I noticed Toot-Toot introducing himself to Angus, but my stomach was too busy dropping to really get the details. I had talked to Toot in English, assuming that I'd be ignored by the German speaking people all around me.

"Please, leave Dundee. They are looking for you. Don't worry about us." The young man urged, shaking me slightly to get my attention.

"Who exactly are they?" I asked, croaking ever so slightly.

"A party of the Holy See Order was in town when the attack began; to investigate rumors about a group of heretics for the third time this year. They've already taken so many. They took my sister last time they came. Please don't let them get you as well." He pleaded, doing his best to not rubberneck around.

"Hell's bells, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition." I muttered in response, contemplating my options.

I knew I fucked up as soon as the words left my mouth running on auto pilot. I felt a noxious aura approaching from behind.

"That is because nobody expects the Inquisition, my son. I would even argue that it is our most effective weapon," replied the newcomer with a soothing, fatherly voice that made my skin crawl.

**I regret nothing.**

**Also a friendly reminder that reviews and constructive criticism are nourishment for my often sleep-deprived brain. So please, feed my poor brain.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. Basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me**

**So it finally happened. This is my first chapter with a word count in the five digits - 12.5k to be more or less precise. That doesn't mean that it will be a regular occurrence though. **

**On a related note, I tend to post partial chapters over on both Space Battle and Sufficient Velocity, so if anyone wants to spoil themselves those are the place to go to. Also due to the forum nature of both sites, it's far easier for me to clear stuff up, react to feedback, and potentially clarify some choices.**

**With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter.**

The part of my mind that was idly wondering whether or not Spain was a thing in bizzaro-world or if mouthing their surprise about the inquisition was a common thing here was quietly relocated to a vacant part of my brain. It didn't mind, there were plenty of free real estate to go around.

With that dealt with, I was able to concentrate on the problem at hand. I felt his gaze burn into the back of my skull with an absurd amount of malicious glee. Enough to make my scalp tingle.

Going through my option I realized I still had a few – at least if I acted right now. The potion was still working partially and I was sure that nobody besides Angus had actually seen me with enough detail that the wanted posters would be sorely lacking in detail.

I was glad to feel the burning sting of the Manacle keeping Winter at bay. He would have likely have lashed out as soon as I felt the presence behind me. Now, I could try diplomacy and spare my battered body. Right.

More realistically, I could use the ancient art of running away. I'd have to knock out Angus to hopefully make sure he wasn't affiliated with me, do my best roadrunner impression, parkour myself some shortcuts, change into my overgrown dog form and scamper of into the early morning without anyone the wiser.

"I do hope, that you don't plan to run away, son." The creep behind me began, interrupting me just before I could employ the slippery bird's battle cry with his gratingly fatherly voice. "If you did, it would mean that we'd have to ask around in town to try and find you."

I had trouble ignoring the insistent itch that had developed on my forehead by now. I could have even sworn that lines began to warm up.

"We wouldn't want to trouble to good people of Dundee after their generous _donations_ to the order and disturb their period of grieve with _painstaking_ questioning, now would we?"

With a sudden spike of heat, itching, and a small wave of metaphysical grease washing over me as the dear father uttered the question, it all made sense. He was trying his hardest to get into my head. Literally. I could feel a flutter of anxiousness and fear bubbling to the surface of his presence as he was thwarted by the enchantments I've put on my helmet. I hadn't thought of it sooner simply because I hadn't expected it in this dimensions of filled to the bring with literal elementals.

I looked at Angus and saw a young man barely containing his rage. Hate, fear, and regret battled for dominance of his face while his tightly clenched fist were shaking ever so slightly. That wasn't just coming from the fact that this same religious order had taken away his sister, it was something even deeper than that. If she was anything like her brother, I couldn't imagine her going without resisting. I could imagine how that suddenly stopped, either being replaced with sudden compliance. I could imagine his hopelessness when they walked away while being compelled to just watch.

I had seen it a couple of times as Mab's handyman and during my time as a Warden. Practitioners who had gone warlock through psychomancy seemed to revel in subverting the nature of their victims, to push them to a breaking point while letting them suffer as long as possible.

There was no way, a man like Angus would still be alive and free if someone came for his sister. The hate that appeared to win over his other emotions in the grand battle royal, wasn't just aimed at the creep behind me. Plenty of it was targeted towards himself, questioning what had come over him as watched his sister simply leave.

I really didn't feel like killing relatively innocent people just to get away. Even if they did belong to a religious organization with a fairly bad rep. Chances were, it wasn't their fault when indoctrinated since birth in a world where heresy was still painfully deadly.

I could make an exception for warlocks that were attacking me. Especially after they threatened to torture an undetermined amount of people just for the sake of getting some metaphorical revenge on me.

My leather glove creaked as I gripped my improvised walking stick with enough force to hear the wood strain…

"Now, now. No need to jump to rash actions, my son." The hypocritical bastard interrupted me once more. "Cardinal Zargothrax would certainly be distraught if I didn't return from a simple sortie to try and purge Dundee from its corrupting elements. I don't know whatever would happen to the poor pilgrims if the generous tokens of faith didn't reach them in St. Aurora."

Hell's bells, I already knew what would come next. I lessened my grip and was even more thankful for the sharp agony on my right wrist. Without it he wouldn't even have finished the first sentence.

"Losing another Chief Inquisitor so shortly after saint Mozgus sacrificed himself trying to prevent the Black Swordsman from _defiling St. Albion…_" I heard my soon-to-be captor take in a shuddering breath trying to suppress this sudden spike of seething indignation before continuing. "… I'm sure he'd be prone to over react. With the full backing of the Holy See Religious Order and its Holy Iron Chain Knights."

This time, it was my turn to sigh. I knew I simply wouldn't be able to live with myself if I were to disappear into the morning – which, by the way, sounded far less poetic as the night – and caused the people of Dundee and probably the rest of the region unfathomable suffering.

It would also endanger Enoch village as the Inquisition would surely gaze towards the other side of the mountains in order to learn more about me. It was pretty much the only way I could've come from.

I forced myself to relax my stance, slouch my shoulders forward ever so slightly.

"What you want do with me?" I asked slowly, mouthing the sounds with unnecessary deliberation and with an accent thick enough to make Toot flinch from the abuse I doled out to the German language.

It was a bit of a last ditch effort to talk myself out of it. If people think you're dim-witted enough you can get away with much more than you'd think. Even if the holy man behind me was an equal opportunity sadist, it might make him underestimate me.

People somehow assumed I was a muscle-brained thug anyway, so it was an easy role to slip into. It probably had something to do with unrelated property damage that seemed to follow me wherever I went, my tendency to whack people with my staff whenever the opportunity presented itself, and the fact that I didn't bother to rectify their preconceptions. Even if it didn't give me an advantage, the faces they made when they realized that my noggin wasn't entirely vacant was worth living with the reputation of being a bit dim.

"I only want to have a little chat about what you've witnessed of the miracle that happened right outside these walls." Creepo started, his voice right back in his previous spine-crawlingly fatherly voice. "You've certainly seen the strange landscape outside these very walls and the chaos within. I personally was able to see the horrors being repelled by a mysterious figure from atop the walls but I was too far away to be able to identify the savior of Dundee so he can get his due rewards. You came from the other side, you might have actually crossed paths with the hero."

I felt the runes that held the enchantments in place heat up once more, no doubt because he tried to compel me again to cooperate.

"And do I have gone with you?" I tried, flinching as Toot, unable to take much more linguistic abuse, had let his cane do the talking while attempting to cover both ears with his other arm.

Meanwhile, Angus, still battling his emotions, looked increasingly disturbed by how things went. It even looked like he was planning to do something stupid.

I gave him a stealthy wink to signal that I had a plan. Sure, it looked much like an Indy ploy with the contingency plans '_burn that bridge if I get there_' and '_simply improvise if the opportunity arises_', but he didn't have to know that. Besides, I was a grandmaster at all three by now.

Angus must have understood the meaning as he relaxed ever so slightly and looked at me, puzzled.

"Sadly, I'm afraid that I do have to insist that you accompany us to St. Aurora. I'm certain that I can recount what I've seen perfectly, but I don't want it to be muddled by what you've witnessed, as such I need we need to carefully catalogue everything we both can remember." He answered, the slight relief somehow managing to make him even more unsettling. "It's something that can only really be done in the grand cathedral of St. Aurora. Besides, it could be that you might forget something. We wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?"

It was times like these that I wished anything resembling the Jedi Mindtrick wasn't a fairly certain first class ticket to renaming myself to Darth Dresden and starting to lightning people while cackling madly. I liked myself without a goatee.

Here I was, cosmic powers at my very finger tips eager to do my bidding, and I was shut down by regulatory authority and my own damn hero complex.

"Toot, I'm going to humor these fine gentlemen." I whispered to lieutenant general in a tone only he would be able to hear. "Try to convince Angus to remain calm for the next bit and to follow us with a cart. I get the feeling that they and the building won't like my visit."

Toot flew over to Angus without anyone raising alarm and started his enthusiastic attempt at persuading him to not start trouble prematurely.

I had heard stories about how things looked over at the Tower of Conviction from travelers who in turn had heard them, indirectly, from the very few survivors of the event that caused its destruction and were willing to talk. They were bad.

I had wondered how much of it was true, but considering the distance between me and the actual suffering, I had been able to convince myself not to put myself in danger and actively seek them out.

I relaxed even further, dropped my stick and turned around to face the man that so desperately wanted to capture me.

He looked plain but friendly. He had a clean shaven face and his brown, balding hair was arranged in a neat, non-offensive manner. He had a beer belly that stretched the fabric of his simple, dark grey tunic and in one hand he had an important looking tome. He could have past as a jolly monk, much too busy brewing ale or mead to cause any harm if it wasn't for one detail. His eyes glinted with a victorious maliciousness.

I tilted my head questioningly to show my cooperation, waiting patiently for him to take the initiative.

"Good, you've seen reason then. Come along now, if we leave immediately, we should reach the cathedral before dusk." The plain looking inquisitor said while four figures parted from the gathered crowd, each carrying an interesting looking instrument.

Before his companions actually reached him, he suddenly slapped his head. "How rude of me, I haven't even introduced myself. You may call me Father Michael."

It shouldn't have surprised me that whoever governed this dimension found it funny to give this cruel caricature of a monk the same name as my dear friend, besmirching it.

The anger came all the same, and I hung on to it, keeping the fire stoked to fuel whatever came when we actually reached their headquarters.

"Hoots." All the same, I was only to squeeze out a single syllable without giving away my rage.

"Well, mister Hoots, if you would be so kind to accompany me, we shall leave at once."

His underlings boxed the both of us in and we marched towards were I assumed his carriage was.

If they wanted to get me into their headquarters this badly I was only too glad to comply. After all, I realized there were two ways to be stealthy. The first one was simply not being seen. The second one was the Bolshevik Muppet approach: You weren't seen if there's no one left to see you.

Considering my initial impressions about the head inquisitor I was fairly certain that I wouldn't mind employing the second method. This time, I might even do plenty good with my building unfriendly MO.

They took my duster and bags but otherwise they left me completely unbound. Mikey said something along the lines that they didn't want me to be too uncomfortable in the warm coach when they took the heavy piece of leather garment. It looked like they wanted to keep up with the façade of friendliness as long as possible. Or they simply thought that they had completely broken my spirits with their barely veiled threats of mass murder in case I thought about doing anything funny. It was probably a bit of both. I even saw something akin to approval as _Herr_ Inquisitor discovered the manacle allowing me to keep it on, giving it a pat for good measure, mumbling something about pittance.

And so, only clad in my tunic and my booths that were tactfully ignored, I was herded into a reinforced carriage with quaint little windows with impressive iron bars flanked by a handful of baby faced knights in pristine, shiny armor. The inside was barren except two benches facing each other, the adjacent walls lined with iron loops to keep optimistic invitees from escaping. On the far side wall a single tiny flame burned from a detachable oil lamp.

Mikey must have noticed my slight hesitation and seen where my gaze had stopped.

"I see you've noticed our newest tool in our holy Inquisition," He stated as he sat himself across of me with a grunt of effort. "We installed that on the decree of both our holy father the Pontiff and the worldly incarnation of the White Hawk."

The mention of the Hawk conjured up the crystal clear image of its demonic brethren perched upon the guard's shoulder when I looked at him with my Sight. It was slowly devouring him. The spectral beast had reacted on my gaze. And now I was reminded that it was likely the very same entity that this religion worshipped as Jesus-ersatz. Stars and stones, that wasn't ominous at all.

And that wasn't even thinking about the implications of this recent flamey addition being ordained from the highest post of the organization.

"What is it for?" I hazarded to ask, glad that I wouldn't need to fear swift stick justice rom Toot, the staunch defender of the German language.

"This blessed flame detects when a heretic performs their vile witchcraft." He replied, staring at it intently while speaking. "This lost wisdom was rediscovered in a village on the other side of these mountains. The pious inhabitants noticed strange happenings with their flames when a sudden forest fire broke out and even their belongings began to float. Sadly, the few brave guards that went after the suspicious stranger who came out of the woods never returned. It was the main reason why a group of villagers undertook the pilgrimage to the holy Pontiff, to inform him of this blasphemous tragedy."

All around the carriage shouts erupted, ranging from short communicative barks over shouted commands to weak cries to dismay and pain. My transportation lurched into motion and I had trouble maintaining my poker face.

"Does it work?" I asked hesitantly, not sure if I'd like what I would hear.

"It does splendidly. Most of these accursed blasphemers break when being asked the right questions. They try to escape using their unholy powers when put under enough pressure but luckily we're trained to handle to handle these situations."

I felt he mental pressure build and my wards heat up when Mikey spoke that last sentence. The orange flame flickered blue for the slightest moment at the height of the pressure and a cruel smile spread across his face.

"However, this technique is still new and untested so everyone is still investigated the traditional way to ensure everyone gets their due justice."

The previous traces of anxiousness had disappeared from the fat inquisitor's features and were replaced by a certain smugness. The bastard probably thought he had found the reason why he couldn't invade my mind.

I meanwhile, had become very still, concentrating on the agony coming from the manacle to distract me from the potent mixture of conflicting emotions that threatened to undermine my whole plan.

Livid rage over the way this monster used the magical fluctuations he himself caused to condemn anyone to a terrible fate, willfully ignorant of its real cause had joined forces with the hatred that build up for him during our short interactions this morning alone. Meanwhile, the regret and sorrow I felt when I heard that my efforts to remain incognito had failed and probably even caused additional suffering had rekindled my guilt over the deaths of Ignatz and his fellow pursuers.

From my inner turmoil, the hard core for every possible plan crystalized. When I got into this wagon I wasn't entirely sure how thorough I had to be with my cleansing, hoping I'd only have to actually kill Mikey, reluctant to stain my hands with too much blood. Now it had been bumped up to Mikey and everyone actively involved in the operation. Someone had to do it.

The head inquisitor's attitude, however, had made it clear that there was something larger going on here. Something more organized. There simply wasn't a way that something like him didn't want more power trough more disciples, especially not when they were manipulative control freaks with a penchant for torture. On the other hand I could equally not believe that people with any semblance of morals could let this creep operate after experiencing his nature.

Then there was the cardinal who happily offered his very own cathedral for the good cause.

I went through multiple scenarios, both with and without the help of Angus and adjusted to the severity of what I'd see at St. Aurora for the remainder of the morning. I watched the landscape flow by as a mental white noise as we moved towards the famed cathedral with greater speed than was comfortable inside the carriage.

I kept count of every anguished cry I heard from the traveling groups we thundered by, every single one weighing against the obviously dog and pony military unit that accompanied us and stowing away the anger that kept on building.

Mikey and his henchmen didn't help either. During the numerous short stops they rotated the goon that accompanied me inside of the carriage. I ignored their monotone threats towards the entire region if I'd try anything funny. Much to their annoyance and anger, I even stopped bothering to react to the mental probes coming from every one of them.

In the name of being as aggravating as possible I also managed to doze throughout most of the afternoon, only opening an eye as I felt any of my captors trying to be frisky.

Sure, I was wondering why Toot hadn't reported back to me and my fury was building steadily, but the chance of getting some much needed rest while putting those fuckers off balance at the same time was too good a chance to pass up on, even if my frame was far too tall to find any comfortable positions. Besides, fighting is a strenuous business and I had the feeling that I had plenty of that in the nearby future.

I think my captors might have even been glad for my uncomfortable, bumpy, quasi-sleep, it made guarding me a fair bit easier and they didn't have to waste breath trying to come up with new ways to give the same barely veiled threats. Or they assumed that I was too simple to understand the gravity of my predicament

My rest ended in the afternoon when the stench of human refuge and rotting meat penetrated my nose. I rose and tried to work out the kinks and knots in my muscles my creative interpretation of laying had produced in those few hours, subconsciously trying to delay the inevitable.

Giving a few appropriate grunts to placate my current nanny, I turned to look out of my tiny window.

I had rumors that Mozgus had a sick fascination with weaving people into the spokes of a wheel to the point that he had fields of them mounted around the Tower of Conviction. I had sincerely hoped that those were exaggerations made for the sake of a compelling story.

I should have known better after experiencing this pocket dimension's sense of humor for more than a month.

The road was flanked by suspended iron cages, each with a drying rack underneath containing a single, intact hide. It didn't take long before I realized what had happened. I could glimpse moist, raw meat through a less dense spot of a murder of crows that was swarming the second cage I saw suspended over a stretched skin marred with scars and burns.

Either Mikey, Zarge or both seemed to have a thing for flaying people.

I silently sat back down, facing the head Inquisitor once again. He, in turn, was already staring at me, clearly waiting to see my reaction with barely concealed glee.

Mikey, likely used to some cries of terror, a bit of good old puking, people simply breaking down, or blind rage was looking forward to use those transgressions to justify some extra torment.

To be fair, not too long ago I would have given him that rage – even if he wouldn't have liked the fallout in my case – but I had seen too much that this would make me lose control. That was before I had to learn how to deal with the Sight of Shagnasty with its entire spectrum of horror.

Using the same technique I used then, I held on to the sight of that unfortunate soul and used it as fuel for the upcoming plan, forcing me to endure and to strengthen my determination. I could wait a bit longer to make the strike more meaningful. The dead could wait a bit longer for justice.

To that, I added the stench wafting over from the refugee camp, the pleas for food and help, the angry shouts from our convoy, the cries of pain and panic, and the occasional telling bump accompanied by a wet crunching sound.

I simply gave the creep a tiny smile. Seeing Mikey unsettled by it gave me a wonderful fuzzy feeling inside. Doubly so because it was enough to completely derail a sermon he was obviously about to launch.

"Toot-Toot reporting for duty, sir!" Piped the eponymous Pixie as he performed impressive maneuvering to avoid the iron bars flying in.

"Just the one I need," I said in English, not particularly caring too much how it looked like to the increasingly confused inquisitor. "Took you a while, had any problems?"

"Had to knock Angus a tiny bit unconscious when you actually got into the carriage without showing any resistance." I messaged my head at that news. Judging his tone, he had apparently taken my impressively thick skull as a gold standard for the lack of concern he showed. Normal people didn't have the same being-hit-on-the-head training as I did (going 'whaa!' when struck is the trick).

Which worried me a bit, since I meant to at least try and rescue all the victims of this perversity of life I could. For that I needed a ride and preferably a mortal partner in crime. Also I really wanted to burn that cathedral down and for that I had to be sure the place was empty which was a pain to do alone. I didn't want Toot killing mortals – the sight of him and his fellow members of the 'za guard ripping the freaking Summer Lady apart was terrifying enough without imagining what they could do to humans. Sending him out on search and rescue wasn't ideal either. There was no way to be sure everyone could actually see my lieutenant-general making it less than ideal.

Bottom line was that I needed another human for this operation to succeed even with a semblance of efficiency.

"But he is on his way right?" I asked as Toot lazily floated over towards Mikey.

"He's following us as we speak. A bit groggy but packing a big hammer. That reminds me, he told me to let you know that he was going in, one way or the other." He answered before pinching the cheek of the mighty Head Inquisitor.

Mikey startled at that only to directly focus on the itty bitty flame and simultaneously launching another mental probe my way.

I decidedly ignored the attack. "When we arrive, I need you to scout the building for prisoners and their captors. He'll accompany you rescuing these prisoners. After that begin clearing the Cathedral out. Try to be stealthy and start when I give a signal."

Toot-Toot saluted when I finished giving him the instructions.

"Just one thing, boss. What will you use as…" He began, just realization dawned on him. "Knowing you, it'll either be fire, crumbling walls, panic, confusion or any combination thereof. Gotcha."

With that he was off and I resumed looking more dimwitted and docile as we crossed the gates into the city of St. Aurora. The inquisitor meanwhile could barely contain his impatience and malicious joy anymore. I even caught him wringing his hand in eager glee as we were truly passed the gates.

One thing nearly all warlocks had in common was a fabulous sense of megalomania that didn't permit them to see themselves as in danger until it was too late. I didn't think Mikey would be any different. With my out of character moment I had, in combination with me frustrating him by resisting his magic, ensured myself a direct route to the dungeons without making a detour to a lovely decorated cell.

I had debated about going with a more refined and elaborate plan, even going as far as outlining the specifics of it, I truly did. But I knew I would have to have access to my magic if I wanted any plan to succeed and actually survive them as well. This meant unleashing Winter in an environment that was likely to appeal to its savage side. After being contained by cold iron for almost the entire day. I knew deep down that there wouldn't be much place for sophistication in that situation. After witnessing the tanning fields, I didn't feel like playing nice either.

I looked out my window and watched houses go by, each showing some sign of neglect and decay. The people I saw looked skittish and thin, some even wasted, doing their best to get out of the way of our little group as quickly as possible and avoiding eye contact.

Soon we passed a second gate and my view opened up to a yard filled with vegetables, spices, exotic looking plants, and the occasional member of the dog and pony army on guard duty.

Considering the state of the rest of the town, it took far too long before we stopped.

The door of the Carriage opened and I was greeted by Mikey's four flunkies.

"Come along now, mister Hoots." Chief Inquisitor Michael beckoned, his voice back to its creepy self while his eyes shone with wild fervor. "We want to get this done while the details are still fresh. If we hurry, we might even be done in time to enjoy dinner. I heard there'll be lamb chops."

I got out with deliberate, stiff motions – which I didn't have to fake entirely – and was greeted by Mikey's best fatherly smile.

His fellow inquisitors and the shiny knights boxed us in once more and we made our way to the front door of the cathedral.

It was big, about the size of St. Mary of the Angels. But where the cathedral of father Forthill was built with brown bricks, here big, smooth grey stone was used to erect this building towards the sky. Combined with the plethora of different gargoyles, the white marble statues, and the gold accents it could certainly be said the building looked impressive.

If you ignored the impoverished town and the greasy aura emanating from the grounds, growing stronger the more we came closer to the cathedral, you might even be mistaken into saying that it had a certain pompous charm and beauty.

The massive doors, made from exotic wood and finely decorated, swung open and we entered the wannabe holy house.

Still they had left me unbound, probably truly believing they could slap me back in line with a coordinated combined mental whammy if I tried anything funny.

What they didn't know was that I was only waiting for the opportune moment to kick some ass and chew bubblegum.

And bubblegum wasn't even invented yet.

If I thought that the outside was wasteful enough, it paled compared to the interior. Smooth marble columns battled for dominance with gold decor inlaid with a whole spectrum of differently colored jewels.

The few places that weren't marble and or gold were more often than not covered with detailed murals, no doubt depicting scenes from the Order's holy book. Each of the four walls, likely oriented to the cardinal directions, had huge stained glass windows depicting angelic beings, filtering in warm, colorful light into the main hall. The benches were lined with what looked like purple velvet cushions.

However, the centerpiece was no doubt the massive hawk in flight made out of flawless white marble, golden orbs rising upwards forming a helix. Its eyes glinted with white crystals, the detail on the carving was breathtaking and it wouldn't surprise me if the orbs were made out of actual solid gold.

It would be such a shame if everything were to be destroyed in a massive fire.

Our little procession led through the length of the cathedral devoid of humans save the occasional guard, past the altar and the fancy bird statue, to a reinforced door. Behind said door, a small room ended in a staircase downward into the murky depths of the inquisition shtick.

Much to my dismay, they didn't even have the decency to get big flaming torches as dungeoneering traditions demanded. Instead, a couple of lanterns were taken from their holders along the wall, lighted and then past around in the group.

Without much ceremony, we began our descent down the spiral staircase into the darkness that awaited us, leaving our Holy Chain guards behind.

The light of the lanterns was the only source of light during our trek through the underground dungeons. We passed by rows of heavy doors while Mikey did his best to keep up a semblance of small talk, assuring me we were only taking a shortcut to his very comfortable office.

It didn't completely mask the occasional moan and plead coming through the cells. Neither did it do anything against the stench of blood and piss and shit that seemed to permeate everything here.

I got over my disappointment over the lack of torches lining the wall quickly enough when I realized how much of an advantage they had unwittingly given me. A wolf needed far less light to function as humans did.

The stench grew more penetrating as we progressed, it gained something that uncomfortably reminded me of bacon. Along with it, I also started to pick up the nauseating, oily residue of the black magic which increased with every step forward I took. The metaphorical stench increased even filtering out the greasy aura my 'captor' exuded as they launched one mental attack after the other, heating up the runes of my internalized helmet to uncomfortable levels.

When we finally arrived at the torture chamber, it took nearly every ounce of willpower to not start purging this world of these monsters prematurely. Even if I didn't gag because of the stench of offal and burned flesh wasn't thick enough that I could taste it, even if I hadn't seen the tanning fields, I would have killed them all gladly for their insistent, and blatant perversion of magic.

The door opened with a wave of dry heat and I grew very silent.

Someone had a field day in the local torture"R"us. My stomach churned at the sight of racks, the chairs lined with long spikes, a pool with a wheel, and the assortment of lovingly cared for instruments of torture – one crueler than the other. It dropped when I saw the red hot metal laying in the central burning bonfire, almost obscuring the iron maiden with blood pooling at its feet.

I meekly followed Mikey into the chamber, silently working the clasp of the manacle.

When I crossed the doorway, I had a good look of a bucket filled with bloody, flesh colored cylinders and looking around the occupants of this room, I could easily guess their origin. Almost every one of these tormented souls was missing either toes, fingers or both.

I was purposefully ignoring them until now, the victims of this fanatic cruelty, in the hope I could get into the room without doing anything rash.

Now that I was inside, I truly saw the extent. Men and women, everyone was naked, wasted and mutilated. Strips of raw meat were exposed where the torturers had practiced their flaying techniques. Large wounds had been seared shut by hot iron, lacerations were ever present, and gender only really mattered when it came to which body parts were most heavily mutilated.

Age didn't seem to matter either as I spotted the lifeless body of a boy who couldn't have been much older than twelve. I removed the manacle fully.

I felt Mikey put a hand on my shoulder, not an insignificant feat considering I'd tower over him if I stood fully upright. "Here we are mister Hoots, let me introduce you to…"

"_Forzare!_" I snarled with barely contained rage, interrupting the dead man walking, and slamming the heavy door shut in the face of one of his flunkies.

I felt how the cold flooded my senses, felt how winter howled for blood in accord to my own feelings.

"_Infriga!_" I snarled once more, freezing the door in place, coating it in ice and effectively shutting us in this wretched room until I decided otherwise.

Immediately, I heard cries of dismay and apprehension coming from the other side of the door, followed by their feeble attempts to break through it with brute force.

Whoever had taught them how to control minds obviously hadn't done the same with basic combat magic. Or at least they weren't capably of thinking beyond slamming door with their bare fists.

Of course, the walking corpse decided this was a good time to start blabbing again. "What do you think you are _doing?!_ Stop this nonsense at _once!_ You're only making it worse…"

With each word the fat craven uttered I felt an irritating spike of mind magic launched at me.

It was time to establish dominance in this worthless place.

I whirled around punching the wannabe dark lord in his liver with an ice covered fist and the full physical prowess of the Winter Knight. Sure, it paled in comparison to most supernatural nasties, but the removing the natural limiters on my wizardly ass meant that I could put Mike Tyson to shame.

The Chief Inquisitor doubled over in absolute agony. Before his corpulent body toppled over I delivered a short, dry kick to his knee., bending it in entirely the wrong direction as I felt the delicate joint shatter on impact and Mikey toppled over puking.

I looked over to the shell shocked torture technicians gaping at the scene and decided that there was still a little time before the dance truly started.

I knelt down to the fallen inquisitor lazily twirling my manacle.

"Mikey, Mikey, Mikey. If only you had ignored me, all of this wouldn't happen." I whispered in near perfect German, not bothering to reveal my menace. "I would have gone my merry way since I have to be places and you could have continued indulging yourself in your sick delusions. Now, after witnessing the depravity myself, I _will_ raze St. Aurora to the ground. I will seek out the ilk of the inquisition and do the same to them."

The fat bastard tried to push himself up, struggling with his girth. "What will you do? YOU'RE CAPTURED AND SURROUNDED! You better hope you die before I'm done with you."

He tried putting some weight on his busted leg only to nearly topple over again in agony. He caught himself in doing some kind of walrus impression his upper body being held nearly vertical fully supported by both arms. He tried to glare daggers at the flunkies in the room but everything considered, it didn't amount to much.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR YOU DROOLING MORONS?! Get your thumbs out of your asses and get that bastard!" He yelled, frantically jerking his head towards me and rattling his comrades out of their stupor.

It also managed to make his walrus impression even more convincing.

"It hasn't dawned on you that I let myself be transported here, has it?" I asked casually rolling my shoulders as the torturers grabbed nearby tools. "I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked up in here with _me._"

I could see I shiver run through the walrus before I changed. My mouth was right near his right arm so I bit down hard, deciding he wouldn't need it in the near future. Having a very good grip, I yanked hard.

Through the combination of my freakish strength and mass and the fact that he hadn't much in the way of muscles, I ripped the limb straight off.

He opened his mouth to scream in renewed agony only to be immediately silenced as I used my leftover momentum and then some to backhand him in the face. With his very own hand. While his arm did lack muscles, it did have plenty of weight in fat on it, making it an excellent flail. The hand connected with a loud, sharp crack interlaced with the sound of bones shattering and flesh tearing.

The Head Inquisitor collapsed with his remaining eye opened in terror, a dent visible in his face, and pissing and shitting himself in his final moments.

I dropped the arm and turned to face the rest of the would be captors. Their newly found courage had disappeared completely. My enhanced sense of smell could even pick up the distinct smell of urine come from two of them.

It was one thing to face an unarmed man with eight armed people, even if said man was rather tall. It was another matter entirely to face an overgrown wolf that was covered in menacingly glowing symbols (I had decided to give the Hellhound shtick a serious shake and channeled some energy in the runes).

I snarled.

The torturer nearest to the door dashed towards the ice covered door and started banging it while crying for help, joining the continuing noise coming from the other side. The others, with the exception of one, tried to retreat to the furthest and darkest corners of the rooms, desperately trying not to be seen.

The only one that didn't, the one with the biggest knife, assumed something of a guard position, watching me intently. I could see something akin to rage in his eyes and I could see he had some experience as a fighter.

It didn't matter much as Winter had decided that none of them would ever be fit to join its pack and we'd be better off eliminating all of them to avoid future trouble. For once I agreed.

Deciding the knife wielder was likely the most dangerous of the bunch, I pounced at him.

He was ready and would have theoretically cut me before I could have reached him. Sadly for him, I didn't want to test how much the armor toughened up my hide and cheated. I shifted back mid jump, this time with all my stored gear and in full armor equipped and stabbed the bastard through his heart.

That's when the remaining six that weren't already crying completely lost it.

Five of them, I either stabbed to death with the Spear of Destiny or gored them with fangs and claws or both.

It wasn't a battle as much as a slaughter.

The last one standing had found some more courage in the face of certain death and had gotten the bright idea to use one of his victims, a girl with only a minimal amount of nasty, perfectly straight burn wounds on top of a few angry, red scars, as hostage to get out of the situation.

I shot him in the leg, forcing him to drop the knife he threatened the girl with. In the confusion I changed and tore out his hamstrings. For good measure, I punched with enough force to break his rips before throwing him on the fire he so loved to torment people with. He cried out in agony for only a short while before losing consciousness due to the combined trauma. The occasional sizzling pop was a constant reminder of his fate as I made my way towards the door and the last of the torturers.

He wildly brandished an oversized, bloodied pair of shears at me in blind panic as I stalked closer. I put him out of his misery with a stab through his heart and he collapsed in a lifeless puddle of flesh and bones.

From the moment I slapped Mikey to death to the point where the last torturer drew his last breath only a minute had gone past.

I flicked the blood of the spear and turned back to start looking to get them freed of their constraints.

Those who were conscious looked at me with wide-eyed horror, the girl who was used as a would be hostage had found a place that was as far as possible from any body and me. Her back was against the wall and she had picked up the knife of her torturer, holding it up defensively.

I guess, watching someone transform into a glowing wolf of doom, apparently materializing equipment out of thin air, and killing people with absolute, savage ease does leave an impression.

I touched my face and saw my hand return glistening red.

Hell's bells, never mind what I've done, I must have looked absolutely terrifying wearing an armor out of shimmering scales, claws, and bone, covered in blood.

I already felt like I needed a week long shower to get clean again, but deep down I knew that this was only the prelude and that not even that would make me feel truly clean again.

The hammering on the frozen door intensified and I could make out threatening shouts coming through. I couldn't understand what they said but could easily guess their meaning. Probably telling me that I was surrounded, that I had no hope to escape, and that I had to surrender or else.

In short, I had stuff to do and needed to get moving again.

I laid down my spear and slowly approached the girl with my hands in the air where she could see them.

"Shh, shh. It's alright. I'm getting all of you out of here." I told the panicking girl. "Can you help me to free the others?"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed, flailing the knife in front of her, scampering to get further away from me.

I sighed softly and stopped where I stood, dropping into a crouch. "Okay, I'll stay right here for now. I'm so sorry you had to witness that. Could you give me your name fair lady? It would make this conversation much easier."

"J-j-jean." She stuttered in reply, her movements becoming less erratic.

"Hello Jean, I'm Harry." I answered in the soft voice that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere while living with my daughter. "So Jean, do you have any family you want to return to when we get out of here?"

The tender beginnings of hope started to bloom on her young, scarred face and her eyes began to tear up. "Yes. My big brother."

"How's that big brother of yours called, Jean?" I asked not daring to get my hopes up too soon."

"My big bro's called Angus." She replied, pride lacing her voice. "He tried to stop them when they came for me. I _really _didn't want to go. But suddenly I was walking towards Michael. Bro shouted and cried and suddenly he stopped… AAGH!"

She dropped her knife as she grabbed her head in pain, and was on the verge of weeping. It took everything in me not to run over her and hug the naked, anguished, gibbering form until the pain went away.

"Angus you say," I said in a happy voice hoping to distract her from her pain. "That does sound like the young man who tried to warn me and prevent me from being captured. As a matter of fact, he's coming this very way to rescue you right this very moment. You'll be reunited with him sooner as you can imagine."

"How can you be sure?" Jean asked, calming down once again.

"I'll let you in on a secret, Jean. I'm a wizard."

She gave the smallest of chuckles at that, before suddenly remembering something that threatened to bring her to tears once more. "But what if he doesn't want to be my big brother anymore! I… I walked away from him…"

"_You_ didn't walk away, Jean. These creeps," I said, interrupting her train of thought and pointing toward the remains of the walrus. "Invaded your mind. They made you do that. You didn't have a choice."

I inched a bit closer to see how she'd react and as I saw she didn't react I continued in a lower voice. "They've done the same to Angus. That's why he suddenly quieted down, that's why he couldn't save you. He feels as guilty, if not more, about what happened even though it wasn't his fault. Angus needs you, Jean."

I could hear how they had started to hack away the ice on the door and knew that time was running out.

"So what say you? Shall we free the others and get you and your brother reunited again? You can even keep the knife in case I do anything funny."

She nodded once and stood up at that, leaving the knife on the ground.

And so we freed the emancipated victims from their devices, helping them stumble on maimed feet towards the one relatively free nook out of sight of the door.

The ones for whom all help came too late we laid on the ground as dignified as possible.

I dumped the bodies of the inquisitors in the furthest corner with rage coursing through my veins and Winter's strength, really not caring how they landed or in how many pieces.

It was grim and quiet work, only accompanied by the rhythmic hacking noises as the party outside tried to break through the door. I had simply torn apart manacles that bound some unlucky few to the wall, a feat easy if you can super cool the iron. The specifics of the different devices I tried to ignore, especially after seeing what the iron maiden had done to the young woman who they had put in before closing the doors slowly.

I really wish I hadn't seen the bloody scratch marks on the back wall of the device and her ruined fingers.

In total we could safe, if you wanted to call it that in some cases, a total of fourteen people including the young boy that was catatonic and silently weeping. Four hadn't survived their interrogation.

"Remember to stay hidden until either Angus, a little Fairy or myself come and get you." I called as I made my way towards the door.

I threw up my shield, making sure to cover the entire small hallway leading up to the torture chamber.

"_Forzare!_" I exclaimed, making a ripping motion.

The door exploded towards me, shards bouncing of my shield creating flashes of blue light where they hit the incorporeal barrier.

I calmly walked out of the broken door, stabbing the pair of soldiers that were trying to break through it mere moments ago through the neck, nearly decapitating them.

I reached out towards the undines swimming in the blood of the dead men, draining them and requesting that they block the entryway.

"_Infriga._" I snarled into the stunned silence that followed my sudden entry and a grisly barrier was formed, blocking the way towards the chambers once more.

I could hear a bell frantically ring an alarm in the distance and saw the first ones of the approximately forty-man strong force returning to their wits focusing their lamps on me.

I also noticed that they had brought some torches and put them in holders on the wall, illuminating the hallway.

I vaguely noticed that someone had begun shouting at me as I thought how much of a pity it would be if they were to suddenly lose that light.

I closed my and looked away as I pointed my staff ever so slightly towards the crowd pulling their attention to it.

"_Lumen!_" I barked, ripping the heat out of all the flames in the hallway, concentrating it at the tip of my spear to create the mother of all eye searing flashes of light.

Even through my closed eyes I could only see white for a moment before everything went perfectly black.

Shouts of pain and alarm intermingled with each other as I changed into my wolf self.

I let out an unearthly howl, asking the sylph to carry it far and wide, to amplify it.

That's when the utter, blind panic and the scrambling began. That is when I started my attack.

I didn't have the time to pay upon them what they did to all those poor souls. Besides I don't know if I could have lived with myself if I'd done that.

I could, however, make sure that their last moments were a living nightmare.

There would be no survivors.

Some of them must have looked away when I launched my flashbang on steroids because they were frantically trying to reignite their lanterns. Considering they went out of their way to paint a nice big target on themselves, they were the first of the main group to die.

I darted through the group, ripping out tendons and throats, slicing and stabbing at exposed body parts as I moved to confront each of the knights, not bothering to suppress the occasional angry snarl that escaped my lips. They were too focused on working their flints while shaking in uncontrollable terror to ever see me coming.

I went through the group again and again like the proactive grey brother of the Cù Sith claiming more and more lives with every pass. Relying on smell and sound as well as the superior night vision which allowed me to see the faint reflections bouncing off unmarred armor gave me an unfair advantage over the knights who were blindly stumbling over each other in mass hysteria.

I saw knights stabbing at each other in the panic when they accidentally bumped into each other. Others simply sat in steaming puddles of their own dread, completely unable to do anything, not even producing a sound anymore. I heard a woman desperately stammering commands that were ignored before it was her turn to come across my path. Those commands were drowned out by the mindless shouting and the cries of agony of the wounded who had survived my first pass.

Only a few of them died a clean death as I forced myself to keep moving and play it safe, often preventing me to land the killing blow right away. I effortlessly shifted to my human form to take a stab at the few knights that were swinging their swords around wildly. Still, even with the precautions in place, a few of them got in a lucky, grazing swipe in the chaos, causing lines of burning pain that would have threatened to make my steps falter if I wasn't as damned furious as I was.

After what felt like an eternity, I could hear nothing except my own panting and the frantic tolling of the bell.

I was going through the grizzly remains – regular victims of animal mauling were already bad enough, image the results when the wolf knows how to completely disable you, where it hurts the most, _and _is furious – trying to find the remains of the last four inquisitors, when suddenly said bell stopped completely.

Of course, the cowards had sent their pet knights to deal with me while getting themselves to safety, so I decided I might as well take a stroll and investigate what happened to the bell ringer. I was going to hunt those four down anyway.

Before I went my merry way I melted the crimson barrier that closed off the chambers I had exited not too long ago, but didn't say anything to the survivors within. There was no need to expose them to the scene of the massacre for an unnecessary amount of time. Better to let them wait until Angus got here and ferried them past the whole affair.

I made my way back to the staircase while I blew the door of every cell of its hinges and into the dark hallway, ignoring the occasional terrified squeak that escaped from the occupied cells. I knew it would make Angus' job much easier and I needed to vent some energy anyway.

It had been hard to restrict myself to mortal means to inflict medieval brutality. I simply wasn't used to seeing this much depravity, at least not on this scale, that had been inflicted by human hand. Normally, I could count on some supernatural nasty to be behind most of it, meaning I could use the anger that had built up beforehand. Sure, they came close to killing me and destroying the world (or whatever nefarious plan they came up with) but at least I didn't feel like a pressure cooker with a malfunctioning valve afterwards.

On the staircase I met up with Angus and Toot. That is to say that I was greeted by a strike of some monstrous smith hammer as soon as I popped my head around the corner. I blocked it with a quick shield and he was damn lucky that I had been able to order my thoughts once more during my stroll through the dungeons. Toot's immediate shouting also helped.

"What are you doing you _idiot!_" He yelled, hitting Angus with a very familiar stick. "If you want to kill yourself, please don't use Harry for it."

I looked up to the perpetrator and at least he had the decency to look somewhat ashamed while somehow also managing to mix in some fear and disgust. I noticed that his hammer was coated with blood and that he'd needed a new tunic as well.

"What has happened down there?" He asked as soon as he returned to his wits.

"Some knights didn't like me leaving. Did you perhaps encounter some inquisitors on your way down? I'm missing four of them." I asked, debating on whether or not I should use my doggy powers to try and find them if he didn't.

"We didn't necessarily encounter them as much as Toot found and distracted them while I bashed in the bastards' skulls." He answered nonchalantly enough, while still eyeballing my suddenly appeared gear. Or at least I hoped it was the gear and not the blood and gore that covered it and me.

"In that case you'd better hurry along. Jean is waiting for you." I said, instantaneously getting his full attention.

"She's alive? Where is she?" Angus asked barely keeping himself from storming downstairs.

"She's straight down the hallway together with most of the remaining survivors, you'll see it when you get to the right room." I answered. "Just watch out the ground is rather… and he's gone."

Angus had already rushed past me before I even started the second sentence. I simply hoped that I wouldn't need to plan a grand escape after he saw my handiwork,

That left me with my lieutenant-general who was looking at me, beaming with pride. As in he somehow literally gave off enough light to nearly blind me.

"Toot, what are you thinking?" I asked carefully, not sure I really wanted to hear the answer.

"Just that the Queen would be very pleased if she saw her Knight like this, boss." He replied innocently enough.

Depressingly enough I was forced to agree. I should have known that something was fishy considering the Mantle was awfully calm.

I gave that particular thought and its implications a neighboring room to the one that was still wondering whether or not Spain was a real thing in bizzaro-world. I'd have plenty of time to be haunted by it when I got out.

"So did you two encounter anything beyond the four cowards? Problems?"

"We had to deal with two more knights that were stationed in front of large cell on the first floor. In said cell were a noble pair was locked up. They're called Placidus and were the boss of this city before being taken prisoner by the cardinal when the inquisition came to town. Apparently the cardinal didn't like it when they protested when he started gutting the city and surroundings to keep up his lifestyle."

"Where are they now?"

"They went ahead to meet the council to see whether or not they can do something against Zargothrax and his mates. The town isn't that happy with the cardinal and the inquisition policies, or so the Placidi said."

"Are there still people in the building upstairs?"

"With a single exception, no."

"Let me guess the cardinal himself?" I asked as I made my way back downstairs to help Angus with the survivors.

"Yep. He's holed up in his tower penthouse. We didn't approach him. He felt dangerous." Toot replied as he lazily floated alongside me.

"Right. Have you found my gear as well?"

By now I was back in the hallway and I could see that Angus had been able to reignite some of the torches along the way.

"Yes, it's on the first floor, second door on the right. It's the same room with all kinds of interesting looking maps and papers." Toot answered dutifully.

"Okay. I want you to keep an eye out for our dear cardinal while I help Angus with the survivors. Warn me if he tries anything. I'll deal with him afterwards." I said as I was nearing the chamber.

Toot floated a bit faster, gave me a short salute and flew off in the opposite direction. I stopped and reached out towards the undines for a second time this day. I kindly asked them to remove the worst of the blood from me. They answered with the peculiar feeling of small streams running down my body.

The scene of the slaughter didn't look any prettier as when I left it, worse the stench had saturated the air making the whole experience even worse.

Angus was still in the room, hugging his sister while being oblivious of the surrounding. I could see tears flowing freely on the face of Jean.

I cleared my throat to break them up, hating myself for having to do it.

I carried a man, both legs maimed beyond functionality and missing an arm, while Angus half carried a woman who had her right foot reduced to pulp. Julie, and surprisingly, the boy stayed very close to him as the other prisoners organized in groups to support each other.

And so our group, the majority of which naked and badly scarred, began our slow walk towards the exit of their own personal hell. Along the way we collected some of the prisoners that hadn't exited the cells I busted open only minutes ago.

Even in the dim light I could see the mixture of relief and sorrow on their faces as they realized what fate they had narrowly avoided.

We had decided to leave the four deceased victims of this cruelty in that chamber. Nobody liked it, but nobody knew them either and everybody agreed that they would like to be remembered the way they were before their ordeals. Their bodies had been disfigured and maimed beyond recognition.

My promise to make this entire accursed cathedral a pyre for them and the other souls whose lives were so brutally cut short in this hell hole probably helped though.

"Angus, get these people on the cart and make one last check in the dungeons. Then get them away from this building." I said when we reached the grand doors of the cathedral, laying down the man carefully on the luxurious benches. Night had begun sometime during my short stay in the dungeons.

"Will do. What about you?" He asked as he shifted his companions wait a bit.

"I still have three things to take care off and I'm tired of holding back." I answered before setting off towards the stairs up.

The room with my duster and decoy bags were just where Toot said they'd be. I put it on, enjoying the security the familiar weight settling on my shoulders gave me. While I was in the room, I pocketed a strategic map that apparently showed some of the other bases of operation of the inquisition. I looked for some other documents but quickly gave up when I saw the endless lists and the Latin fetish they shared with my perfectly sane dimension. The map was all I needed for my plans after all.

With that out of my way I made my way towards the supposed penthouse.

"So, is the creep still holed up?" I asked as I met Toot in front of what looked like an ivory door.

"Yes he is. I didn't come too close though. He can see me." The heavily armored pixie replied.

"Do you know whether or not he's in the blast zone if the door just happened to explode? Purely by coincidence of course." I inquired as I tried to estimate the approximate value of the very fancy door.

"I don't think so…" He answered slowly, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"In that case, go help Angus double check the dungeons below to make sure no one is still in there. I'll go introduce myself to Cardinal Zargothrax." I said to Toot whose mood dropped abruptly at that. "When you're done, you can come and watch you maniac. Just make sure I won't hit you."

"Yay!" He shouted and set off again.

"I'll huff, and I'll puff, and…" I murmured while pointing my staff at the obstacle in question.

"_Forzare!_"

The door exploded into the room and I walked in through expensive dust. I was greeted by a fit looking man with middling height, dressed in entirely dark purple silk robes, sporting a neatly maintained beard as black as the hair on his head, and wearing a pair of very fancy looking glasses.

The bastard was slowing clapping.

"Bravo, bravo," He said, an incredible smugness dripping from his voice. "You've finally made it here. You know, I was distraught when Lord Femto ordered me to stay here to secure the inquisition efforts instead of joining his glorious conquest. I mean, I'm indispensable and would make an invaluable asset on the battlefield, which is probably why he assigned…"

I recognized the signs of a monologue when I saw them and tuned him out. Instead of wasting my few precious, functioning brain cells to this drivel I looked around the room.

If I thought that the main hall was pompous than this room was outright vulgar in its display of wasted treasures. There were gems on nearly everything and it looked like the only important part was how much it costed instead of how it went with the other. It was a garish mixture of gold and silver, of unread books and giant paintings.

But looking beyond the pomp, I noticed darker details. Details like a bucket that looked eerily similar to the one in the torture chamber sat beside a comfy chair. Details like a liquor collection that would make Captain Harrison Love puke in horror.

"…don't know how you managed to defeat those wannabe knights – sure they were only pampered kids from nobles who are too craven to join any real army, but forty-two of them should have been able to do something –, but your luck has run dry as soon as you met me. Because I know one thing for sure, you're no Black Swordsman. A nobody like you couldn't possibly prevail against me." I took a risk and looked into his eyes as he took a breath to continue his impressive monologue.

And I started laughing, cackling even. I didn't even feel the slightest tugging hint of a Soulgaze when my gaze met his.

"What is this impudence? Haven't you heard a single word I've said?!" Thraxy shouted looking at my breathless, doubled over form like he was missing a joke and was extremely pissed because of it. "So be it. TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF ZARGOTHRAX!"

I had put up my mental wards as soon as he started running his mouth again after my interruption, arguing that the walrus and co had to have learned or at least refined his skill with mind magic somewhere. My paranoia paid off as I felt the whammy impotently hit the walls of my mental fortress even through my enchanted helmet.

Seeing himself be repelled took much of the wind out of his sails.

"So you want to know what was so funny?" I asked sweetly while I plinked away the tears in my eyes – something surprisingly difficult with a helmet on. "You're not human. That means _I don't have to hold back anymore._"

I reached deep into the stored hatred that had threatened to overwhelm me not too long ago.

"_Flickum Bickum!_"

Zargothrax cried out in absolute agony as I set fire to his fat and nerves.

It was too bad that instead of going down like a good sport with bubbling and melting skin and everything, his legs began to suddenly expand in all directions, transforming into something far more monstrous along with the rest of my body.

And just like that I was facing a giant sea star with the fleshy, warped upper body of Thraxy sticking out of the top like some blobby mutant centaur. The powerful legs were lined with an unreasonable amount of irregularly placed spikes the size of my shins. Its edges were lined with vicious hooks and from the few glimpses from the underside of its undulating legs I could determine that he had found it necessary to replace the traditional suction cups with a mouth. They reminded me uncomfortably of the mouths of leeches.

"I must commend you for that attack, but it won't be enough. Now…"

"_Fuego!_" I belted, fueling the spell with more of the anger I had quietly stored during the day and silently wondering whether this particular monster would ever learn.

The wrist thick bar of fire, absolutely teeming with salamanders, punched through the torso and shattered the window on the other side in tiny little pieces. Also the curtains caught on fire. Oops.

Once again I was disappointed. The charred hole knitted itself together near instantly.

"_FOOL_! Did you really…"

It looked like Thraxy wouldn't learn

"_Pyrofuego!_" I roared, putting in even more of an effort and using a tiny bit of Soulfire to give it more substance and hopefully prevent the regeneration.

This time, he jumped out of the way of the fist thick bar of nearly white fire with an inhumane screech. He was surprisingly quick and as a result I only managed to slice off a limb even as I swiveled the beam around. The appendage flopped onto the ground with a wet smack and the demon star fish roared in pain.

The thermal bloom of the fiery lance had set fire to the any fabric and paper that was unlucky enough to be less than ten feet away from it as it passed through. That is to say, nearly everything was on fire.

I noticed that the Mantle had started its innate magic and was busy cooling my immediate surrounding to bearable levels. However, it didn't help much against the smoke.

I shook my shield bracelet and poured energy into it, forming a bubble around me that kept much of the smoke and heat away.

Gazing through the fire and smoke I could make out the silhouette of Thraxy, roaring guttural sounds of impotent rage. I could make out how the damned leg regrew with a startling speed. But I also noticed that he appeared to shrink in overall size.

That meant that I simply needed to attack until he couldn't keep up anymore. That said, I doubted I had enough magic left in me to both maintain my shield as well as brute force him to death.

As Thraxy managed to move again, I was struck by what the opulence and decadence reminded me of. Even though it wasn't nearly as pompous as here, I harbored as similar rage then. The dead tired me, still recovering from self-inflicted poisoning had been able to outsource one of the most destructive spells I had ever done.

From the corner of my eyes I saw that Toot had come back from his dutiesand was now absentmindedly devouring pocorn.

I smiled. It was night time and whatever my supernatural stalker had done, it appeared that it made it easier for the spooky side to appear near me.

I had no doubt that in this wretched place there were even more ghosts with severe anger issues than at Casa Bianca.

I opened myself up to the specters that haunted this 'holy' place using my own hatred and anger as a conduit to bind them, to aim them.

They answered my call near instantaneously and in far greater numbers. Maybe it was because my own ghostly adventures or simply because the specters were that thirsty for revenge. Or maybe it was bizarro-world or a combination of everything. The details didn't matter. They came in massive numbers without me ever drawing a circle. I didn't need to look for them this time, I didn't need to reach out for each and every one of them individually.

Zargothrax was moving towards me once more.

"_Memorium,_" I declared. "_Memoratum. Memoritus._"

I imbued them with fire and pumped as much of the enraged energy into the ghosts that had built up in me during that day. The specters absorbed the energy like a dry sponge in the Sahara dessert.

The tower shook and there was a spectral wail announcing fury from the fiery pits of hell, demanding vengeance. The shrieks were ear shattering loud and terrible enough to stop a heart.

Windows shattered and walls exploded inwards as fiery specters rushed Zargothrax, taking out chunks faster than he could ever hope to regenerate, gouging out meat with fiery claws. Devouring him.

Over the wails of the dying demonic warlock I heard the sound of uncountable windows breaking, pillars cracking and saw how the entirety cathedral was ablaze in a hellish inferno.

And I was still inside.

I wanted to make a dash towards the window and hope I would be precise enough to command the sylphs in my fatigued state.

But then I saw Thraxy's last ace. Through the warped air and flames I saw his shriveled, severely damaged but frantically regenerating form slowly lifting an egg like object aloft.

"_Fuego!_" I roared once more, cutting off his arm, continuing the slice through the torso, deciding that I didn't want to find out what it did.

"_Forzare!_" I followed up, launching the flaming, one armed torso through the window, making sure he wouldn't be able to reach the object.

I ran after him, jumping through the same window to ensure he was dead, or at least be there to deliver the killing blow. Sometimes it was nice when difficult choices were made for you.

"_Ventas Servitas!_" I yelled, reaching out to the sylphs asking them to guide me to the corpse and land in such a manner that I wouldn't pop my ankles.

I landed just in time to hear a wet crunch behind me. I hadn't been looking around while falling with style due not trusting the sylphs to accurately estimate the tensile strength of my bones and having to concentrate. I turned around towards the source of the sound, desperately looking for Thraxy's remains to put an end to this. I was greeted by the sight of Angus. He looked like a proud warrior king, standing tall, bathed in the light of the fires. The inferno illuminated a determined, grim smile on his blood covered face. It also illuminated the hammer he had brought, its head embedded in its entirety in the ruins of Zargothrax' head.

The smoldering remains of the mighty Zargothrax shuddered one last time and then stayed still for good.

I gave Angus an approving nod and turned my attention towards the burning building.

Specters were flying through the walls, tearing at them, unleashing their rage. Molten glass and glowing rocks where scattered around the badly damaged structure. The cathedral gave a shudder drenched in finality, rumbled, and imploded in on itself with an explosion of sound. Angus, Toot and I were hit by a wall of heat and wind.

Somehow even the stones themselves appeared to be burning now and still the rage of the spectral beings wasn't quenched as they rammed the few remaining structures and the very ground with fiery rage.

I watched the complete destruction with no small amount of pride.

The three of us stood there for minutes as we watched the spectacle continue in comfortable and exhausted silence.

I only wished I had thought of packing some marshmallows when I set off to find the warlock more than a month ago.

**Lately, I may or may not have been listening to Gloryhammer too much while writing (and studying, and exercising, and...). **

**Don't worry about the references getting too obnoxious in the future though, I'm keeping a close eye on it. Someone like Angus was already planned, as was the visit to the cathedral, including the apostle. The names were chosen thanks to the positive feedback on mainly SB and because they fitted the characters I had in mind anyway. After finishing up in St. Aurora, Angus will only pop up again much later in the fic with the exception, if there is enough demand, of occasional short snippets between scenes.**

**As always the reminder that reviews, feedback, and constructive criticism is highly appreciated.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Dresden Files nor Berserk. Basically if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me**

**First off, my sincere apologies for taking so long with this chapter. Life and health couldn't really decide whether they wanted to double or tag team me (nothing too major, but more than enough to keep me from writing) delaying this chapter massively. It's getting better, especially the health nonsense, but I sadly can't make promises when the next chapter will come.**

**Harry is on the move again following the aftermath of St. Aurora and absolutely nothing happens and he's able to fully recover from the stress of the day. Dresden is just that lucky.**

**BazookaMan once again proofread the chapter.**

**I hope you enjoy.**

I was about to ask Toot for some of that popcorn when the ground suddenly shuddered and the first of the dungeons collapsed in on itself as the furious specters continued to tear through the ruins of the cathedral and everything remotely attached to it.

"I think we better get away from the building." I half shouted at Angus to be heard over the hellish screeches before turning to see him well on his way enacting my astute plan with due haste.

I followed him with a relaxed jog even as the very ground crumbled from under my feet, ignoring every instinct that was screaming at me to move faster. Sure, I saw the benefits in listening to these urges but I had the feeling that I had to do some PR next and after what I've done, I had to maintain a certain image. And there was no doubt in my mind that nobody would come to check out the complete and utter destruction of a freaking cathedral.

Barely and casually out-speeding imminent danger and being able to strike up a conversation looked so much better than the alternative. Which, if the insistence of my instincts were anything to go by, would have been sprinting past Angus, screaming like a little girl, and face the music panting and covered in plenty of sweat to compliment the grime and ashes already covering me.

After all – even though it was another thing that went against my instincts – cool guys didn't look at explosions.

Besides, if something happened I could activate my shield and parkour out of the hole to make a dramatic entrance. The ghosts weren't a problem either as they should leave their creator alone. Probably. Maybe.

Much to the amusement of Toot who was lazily flying beside me, I picked up a bit more speed just to be sure I didn't have to find out what the ghost's stance on yours truly was.

One thing was for certain though: I had to get out of the town sooner than later. I remembered what the stalker lady had told me the night she visited Enoch, especially regarding the circumstances as to why she had been able to manifest herself to that extent.

This place seemed to be a dream come true if I saw any and I was fairly certain I would not survive round two. Especially not with the sheer exhaustion that the Mantle was no doubt overriding by adrenaline or something. If I remember Butter correctly.

Our retreat carried us all the way through the gardens, accompanied by the wails of the damned and the hellish noise it seemed a lot longer than I could remember from my trip in the carriage.

Confused shouts and clanging of equipment greeted us as we reached the actual gate of the cathedral grounds. A contingent of city guards had arrived, apparently being pushed to double time if their general dishevelment and the panting was any indication.

Some of the soldiers shot a wary glance at me as I walked over to them, apparently not acknowledging the destruction that lay behind me. But none of them could hold that gaze too long as they'd either be distracted by my work or, even more often, by the human misery that stood beside the gate in form of the rescued victims.

Angus had made a bee line to Jean who was now in his protective embrace that also included the boy that had chosen to adopt the both of them. I could make out some calm his face that was marked by grieve and anguish. Slowly but surely the soldiers woke from their disorganized stupor and either made their way towards the cart, offering their cloaks to the naked victims, while others tried to inconspicuously form a half circle around me while I was waiting for someone who looked like he was in command.

Even from this distance and after more than fifteen minutes of intense supernatural destruction, there still was an occasional heavy rumble as another structural support gave way and another piece crumbled in on itself. There were still the occasional bangs as the extreme heat caused stressed material to simply explode under the pressure.

"Hey, Toot. How unhappy did the Placidus pair seemed about the whole inquisition when they stormed out?" I asked the pixie who was now flying from soldier to soldier, seeing who would react to him.

That I suddenly started talking in a strange language did little good to calm the nerves of these sensibly paranoid professionals. Doubly so when those who could see Toot-Toot witnessed him fly over to me.

"Aria was wildly muttering expletives aimed towards the cardinal and the inquisition in between telling her husband that she'd rally the town guard if he'd take care of, and I quote, 'those old fools in the council'." Toot-Toot answered while settling on my soldier. "Her creative language use was actually all kinds of inspiring. But anyway, they both stomped off the premise after that while she was still being creative."

Which meant that it was unlikely she'd be too upset for what had happened. Probably.

Luckily for my mounting impatience, I didn't have to wait too long before the totally-not-a-semicircle-surrounding-me opened up and the lady herself approached me.

I had to concentrate on counting prime numbers for a moment to get Winter out of the forefront of my consciousness as it found her to be a just what it needed after the bloodshed. Wild, red hair flowed in her wake and her somewhat tattered green dress left little to my imagination. The rapier bouncing against her leg on every confident step she took, did much in the way of explaining the well-defined muscles of her arms and legs. She wasn't buff, but she reminded more than just a bit of a taller, red headed version of Karrin.

_No bounce, she must have bound her chest to prepare for battle._

I slapped Winter down with basic formulas before it could get me in too much trouble. She looked like she could have tied me into knots or – more likely – poke me full of holes if I didn't have access to the Winter Mantle.

Something of my internal struggle must have shown through though as she stopped earlier as expected. Just out of range of a normal lunge and stab with a spear I idly noticed.

"What has happened here?" Aria asked as I didn't break the ice, somehow narrowly avoiding a hiss.

"I had a disagreement with inquisition and decided to rescue some people while I was working out our differences." I replied, showing a toothy grin.

My first impressions of Aria were good enough to not automatically activate my authority triggered wise-ass unit, but time was running out and I knew that I had to make sure where the power dynamic between the two laid.

"And where in that," Aria took a breath to overcome her disbelieve, "_disagreement_ did that happen?"

She nodded at the scene at my back and I hazarded a glance at latest work as a human wrecking ball.

I had heard the destruction of Casa Bianca being described as a violent explosion.

I had the feeling that there were either far more spirits at this wretched place or they were far, far angrier then those of the vampire's victim. Or if the rest of my experiences in bizarro-world were any indication it was a combination of both.

Only an oblong crater, covered with molten and still smoldering rocks and glass remained of the once grand structure. Walls had simply collapsed into themselves and followed the floor into the dungeons as the specters ran out of structures above ground to ravage.

"The cardinal was a bit sturdier as expected and I overdid it just a bit." I started before looking the lady of St. Aurora in the eyes or as close as I could get without triggering a Soulgaze. "I gave the countless souls that died at the hand of the Holy Order in unimaginable monstrous ways the chance and the means to avenge themselves."

Aria was visibly taken aback when I dropped the flippant attitude. Good, I wanted to make sure that she was aware that I took this very seriously.

"The cardinal was some devilish creature that snacked on the remains of those that landed in the dungeons. I don't know whether or not he had been like that from the beginning or he literally sold his soul somewhere along the way and abandoned his humanity." I said, quietly and was aware that Toot didn't goof around.

From the corner of my eyes I could see he had remained on my shoulder and was now mirroring my calm demeanor, staring at the high lady with a hint of a very unfriendly smile. Aria wisely decided to remain silent and with that showed more common sense than I would ever have. The general quiet was probably an indication that there were quite a few people who could read the mood."

"I really can't stand to see entities with powers torment people. Humans get a tiny bit more wiggle room as long as they restrict themselves to mortal means and don't go overboard; I don't like putting myself above the rest of humanity and I severely doubt I have any right to." I continued being careful every word was heard. "But as the inquisitors have learned tonight, I do make exception. So, I want to know. How did this happen in your town?"

"I think I can assume that you aren't from around here," Aria began, waiting for my confirmation which I gave, "One thing you have to know about the Holy See is their enormous power. Nobility fight each other over favors and if it wasn't for Lord Griffith, they'd still basically rule midland. As a result, large towns and families that don't support them tend to disappear or see a change of leadership while pyres are burning."

She took a tentative step forward, deliberately putting herself into my range. "Cardinal Zargothrax wasn't all that bad at first. I still felt shudders as I talked to him and there were some strange rumors going around about missing pilgrims, but he even supported the town itself, mainly investing in its defenses and local farmers."

Her face turned in something bitter and angry as she continued. "That changed when the Band of the Hawk was reformed and began their campaign against the Kushans. He turned petty and enacted more and more draconian policies. My husband and I did our best to soften some of the damage but we couldn't do much without openly going against the church which would have meant giving free reign to the cardinal."

She actually looked sickened by now. I couldn't tell whether it was because she blamed herself for what had happened or the events that followed. I could however guess what happened next if the bottled up rage coming from the soldiers that were present was any indication.

"Then the inquisition based their headquarters here and everything took a turn for the worst. Sandos and I went to the cardinal as soon as the unauthorized executions began to formally protest against it in the hopes of stopping a riot. We did stop the riot but not in the way we had hoped for. We were captured and used as hostages too keep out militia in check. With the promise that everyone who lifted a finger against the inquisition would be treated as heretics, the rest of any chance for a revolt was destroyed."

Aria looked tired, empty, by now and seemed to await judgement.

I turned to Toot. "What do you think lieutenant-general?"

"She doesn't seem to be lying, my lord." He answered gravely.

"Ok then," I said in my previous, lighter tone, "With that out of the way. Harry Dresden's the name, wizardry's the game."

I extended my hand for a shake and was delighted to notice that said action had startled the soldiers into a fighting stance. I already had the feeling that she was upfront with me halfway through her recounting of the events – it did fall into line with my expectations after all – and Toot's assessment had sealed the deal.

Aria for her part was startled for only a mere moment before grabbing my hand and shaking it. "Aria Placidus. An honor meeting you, Sir Dresden."

"The honor is mine." I replied, letting go of her hand and gesturing to Toot. "This is Lieutenant-General Toot-Toot Minimus commanding the Za-Lord's Elite and my personal honor guard."

Toot in turn graciously reached for a finger of Aria's hand and gallantly kissed the back of it.

I could swear to hear stammered acknowledgement in return. It seemed she wasn't quite used to the supernatural just yet.

She recovered quickly and a sober seriousness washed over her. "I don't want to sour the mood, but I do have to ask: what happened to the knights stationed here."

"They lost my sympathy during my ride here and decided side with the inquisition as I tried to rescue the people out of the dungeons." I answered, very much aware that my voice had lowered itself automatically.

"I see. You, or more likely we, have made even more enemies than expected. Those were knights were the entirety of the newly rebuild Holy Iron Chain Knights. A group nobles sent their sons to climb in military ranks without much in the way of risks. At least not until they met with the Black Swordsman." Aria explained. "They'll be out for our blood if they learn what happened here and I have to protect my people."

"I wanted to leave this place sooner rather than later." I said shrugging. "I wouldn't mind if you told them a mysterious stranger opened the gates of hell and escaped before you could apprehend him. It's close enough to the truth and I have a strong hunch that soon they have reason to believe you without a question."

"And you'd simply leave. Without wanting rewards, titles, power, anything? I find that very hard to believe."

"I have no use for any of that, lady Placidus. As you've noticed I'm not from here. I'm actually on a quest to find means to get home and I literally only stumbled upon this problem along the way." I returned to the growing disbelieve of Aria. "If you truly want to do something in my name, help your people. Take care of those who have suffered at the hands of the inquisition and are willing to stay. Try to do something for the refugees outside of these walls and take down those abhorrent displays of human cruelty. If you have the resources, I'm sure that the surrounding towns would appreciate help and news about what happened here. Especially Dundee."

"Why Dundee?" Aria asked with no small amount of confusion.

"Right, almost forgot. Dundee was attacked by a group of undead unicorns and sustained a heavy loss in life and infrastructure before I had the chance to interfere." The strangled sound she made, might have been a sign of her reaching breaking point. "Before, you ask. No, that isn't even the strangest thing that happened to me and is actually the reason for my visit to the cathedral."

I heard a small noise but panicked noise coming from the town wall in the quiet as Aria desperately tried to make sense of her new world view, reminding me that I was on the clock.

"Is there anything else you wanted to ask, lady Placidus?"

"Anyone who saves me and gets rid of an evil as big as the inquisition without expecting any rewards can call me Aria. But no. Not at the moment. Why?"

"Because I had the bad luck of getting the attention of something unpleasant and who likes to make my nights a violent affair. Especially on energy rich grounds as these. It's homing in on the city as we speak."

"Could we do anything to help against this problem?"

"I fear not. People would only die in vain as tomorrow night the ranks would simply be refilled." I smiled lightly. "This is goodbye for me. The best of luck, Aria."

"The best of luck to you too, sir Dresden."

I walked towards the cart where Angus sat leaning against one wall with both Jean and the boy propped up against him, sleeping. I was aware of Toot waving goodbye as we left Aria to give out commands as if they were candy.

"Hey." I quietly greeted him as I reached the cart.

"Harry. I don't know how I could begin…" Angus began before I stopped him.

"You've done more than enough already. You helped to pull this off in the first place and delivered the finishing blow to the one responsible for both your and Jean's misery. Besides," I gestured at the sleeping form of the boy, "It seems that you suddenly have one more mouth to feed."

Angus looked at the mouth in question and sighed. "What Ooshie has told, he was brought in with his mother after his father was killed for standing in the way of the inquisition. He had to watch his mother getting flayed before he himself ended in a cell, waiting for his turn in the chamber."

A fresh surge of livid rage washed away much of the building guilt and regret over my actions tonight.

"Just take your time and heal. All three of you. I've talked a bit with Lady Placidus and she'd very likely provide for you until you're ready."

"What about you? I've heard what you had to do. I'll have nightmares for the coming weeks and from what I've witnessed myself my deeds pale to yours. I saw you as you came up the stairs."

"I have to go or things would be getting unsafe for everything involved." I said before seeing his face cloud over with worries and adding. "Don't look at me like that. This isn't my first rodeo by far. I'll manage."

"If you're sure. I guess you should know best" He replied with enough sarcasm that I had to look for pools of the stuff.

"Yeah, I'm sure. One last recommendation; If you three feel like being able to handle traveling again, I'd suggest visiting Enoch village just over the pass behind Dundee." I said as I moved closer.

"I've been teaching them how to fight against the things that go bump in the night. Take everyone we rescued from the dungeons and who wants to fight. Tell the villagers that Harry Dresden has sent you." I whispered before straightening out again.

"Well then, take care, Angus."

"You too, Harry, Toot."

I moved to trade grips with him but stopped as I realized both arms were already taken. He shrugged and simply smiled. Toot moved in close to his free hand of his otherwise occupied arm.

"Bye." He simply stated and fist bumped the clenched hand of Angus.

With that out of the way, I began running towards what felt like the shortest way to the outer wall of .

"The gate is that way." I heard Angus call out behind me.

But it didn't matter to me. Where I went, I didn't need gates.

"_Vento Servitas!_" I exclaimed, reaching out for the sylphs one last time that night, trusting them a bit more after they didn't pancake me as I jumped out of the clock tower in pursuit of half of Thraxy.

Much to the delight of Toot, I flew over the wall encircling the ex-cathedral, startled some guards as I and a merry pixie whizzed past them, and landed in a somewhat empty spot of the refugee slums clinging to the city walls, terrifying people in the process.

I started running as soon as I hit the ground, counting myself lucky that the air elementals and I both remembered that I had considerable mass.

With a howl I transformed into a wolf as I reached the edge of the slums, hopefully drawing in the attention of any supernatural predator nearby, and ran.

**OoOoO**

My bravado faded away long before there was even the earliest sign of dawn, an aching fatigue replacing it as my body remembered that it hadn't had a decent rest or real food for nearly two days. Then it reminded me that running, spell slinging, being in mortal combat, and even more running was another thing it would like to file a complaint about. Winter tried to disagree but found it was fighting a battle it couldn't win alone, forcing me to set aside my differences with the Mantle and chip in the only thing I knew that would help. My own stubborn idiocy. That was when I felt my body starting to plot its retribution.

Mentally and physically, it was all I could do just to keep focusing on that looming hot spot of magic, keep moving forwards it, and avoid the worst of the monster that came out of the bushes for some tasty wizardly wolf's ass.

With the growing fatigue, my parkour skills, the ones I had honed for so long on Demonreach in a feeble and presumably pointless attempt to stave off madness, deteriorated to the point where all the pseudo fairy grace in the world couldn't prevent me from misjudging distances.

At least, now I know that my hide – much like my teeth – inherited some of the magical qualities of my enchanted duster and armor. It just sucked that I learned only after missing a step and stumbling into a group of mini chlorofiends, made from only the thorniest vines and sharpest leafs, and then getting beaten more than a couple of times before I could entangle myself.

I truly realized how bad it was, how much I'd have to pay for my double rescue with a side dose of avatar of vengeance when Toot nearly poked my eye out in an attempt to get me moving again. The horizon already glowed red, heralding true sunrise and the succor it brought in less than an hour.

My memory of the last few hours were patchy at best, becoming worse as the night went on with only few highlights like the plant mob managing to take hold in my struggling brain. As such I don't know the exact chain of events that led to my muzzle being buried into the stinking remains of a scaly caricature of a wolf, my fur plastered with black, tarlike ichor.

I can remember the wave of irritation that hit me when Toot poked me. I remember wanting to snap at him for daring to interrupt me and how much the insolent creature sated in spite of its foul taste.

The soft, gleeful laughter that was carried by a sudden gust of wind when we left the bodies of the fallen pack haunted me for weeks.

I barely managed to turn back to my human form as we reached some kind of shrubbery not too far from a road leading in the general direction of our destination.

I was gone as soon as my head hit the ground of the bushes that promised small protection from prying eyes and larger predators. I didn't even have the energy left to ask Toot-Too to watch over me.

I woke late in the afternoon, Toot collapsing on me as he noticed me stirring. I was still tired and I was truly afraid to try putting on the manacle. Even without it and Winter coursing through my veins, I still felt tired and bruised, every motion causing discomfort as skin covered in lashes stretched and abused joints protested.

So I decided to keep it in my pocket, arguing that I'd best avoid civilization anyway with the way I both looked and felt.

What was the worst that could happen.

But still – even without the manacle – the growling of my stomach threatened to make matter much worse if I didn't pacify it soon and my parched tongue agreed with it.

Nearly as important, I had to start moving again if I didn't want to test the just how sturdy my defenses were.

The few remaining hours of daylight I spend cursing at inconsiderate farmer who built walls and fences everywhere and especially between the rather small fields, forcing me to vault over them if I wanted to avoid people on the roads and cut the travel distance. Without the extra jumping power my wolf form gave me, it meant that my Parkour skills got a refresher to the point where I had to suppress the urge to add in flips and somersaults just to spice things up.

There was the occasional shout of a disgruntled farmer and a couple of attempts to go after me but my pursuers fared far worse than me. I barely noticed them, my mind too busy cursing Hollywood for once again lying to me. No flowing fields of hip-high wheat and no paths with the nice strip of grass in the middle to be found at all.

At first I had explained their absence with the mountainy area of Enoch, looking forward to actually see it.

I guess it was what from blindly believing what was being told and shown since the first fantasy book I had opened, instead of actually asking. It wasn't like there weren't any wizards I knew that were around long enough to give me second hand accounts.

I even ignored Toot when he tried to protect my poor heart from the sudden disillusion. Something I intended to rectify when the pixie finally woke again. He was tired enough to deeply and soundly sleep in a relatively empty pocket of my duster even while I was running and hopping around like a madman. Somehow.

He shouldn't even be able to fit in there.

Even ignoring the numerous other reasons why, I really wanted to get back home -thus leaving this mad pocket dimension and my newly earned supernatural stalker behind -, getting away from Toot's new found power of casually ignoring the laws of physics and reality on a mere whim would have been enough.

Sadly, that night wasn't the right time to ask my lieutenant to teach me _medieval history 101. _The moment dusk arrived, I already noticed a certain focus in the few monster that were out already, mainly ignoring me and moving as if they had a vague purpose.

Their goal became clear a couple of minutes after I felt true sunset wash over me, heralding the beginning of the night. I ran into a veritable wall of nasties of all different kinds of shapes and sizes. They were clearly waiting for me to show up and wasted no time to pile up on me as one as I jumped a particularly high stone wall.

I was barely able to survive the scarily coordinated mob of skeletons, demons, goblins, and hell spiders even while completely disregarding any collateral damage and loss of produce I caused to multiple farmers, a depressing amount of experience with these kinds of situations, and a grouchy Toot watching my back, slashing down everything that came too close.

I left a trail of gouged earth and scorched fields as I broke through the ranks. I didn't want to know how confused the farmers were the following day. Even ignoring the rampant destruction my trail would be enough to cause stories to spread. I had to shift often to either fire of spells to clear a path or quickly dodge an attack coming from the sides or the numerous monsters I tried to leave behind, making my trail a baffling mix of human and wolf footprints.

Even after breaking through, I couldn't catch a break, too many demons like the wolfish creature I partially devoured were able to keep up with me. There simply were too many to deal with directly without the rest catching up and thus I ran.

I couldn't even take the easy way out by simply catapulting myself through the air like I did in chase that lead me to Enoch village. The air was swarming by flying critters, circling me and especially the albatross bats helpfully reminding me of their presence by swooping down at just the wrong moments. Their scythe-claws looked like they could easily decapitate a man.

If their precision was anything to go by, they practiced that technique regularly. They would have gotten me too if it wasn't for the Mantle and my wolf form's mobility. The fact that the shrieked when the swooped down also helped if you were supernaturally mobile like me.

And once again Toot proved his worth once again by flitting about, somehow managing to keep an eye out for any nasty trying to get a drop on me – often involving a literal drop in the forests a ran through – and scouting ahead of me, warning me when I would have run into an ambush.

The mad dash continued through the night, shrieks of the demons filled with bloodlust accompanied by the occasional throaty chuckle I heard at the very edge of my perception.

Somehow, the night managed to last both an eternity and mere minutes at the same time thanks to its unique blend of physical exertion that made me yearn for to see the sun and the reactions needed to actually survive the onslaught without breaking my legs in the process. Reactions that didn't allow for much thought.

Much like the previous day, I had barely enough time to revert back to my natural form before I pretty much collapsed into unconsciousness.

Unlike the previous day, however, what awaited me wasn't the black embrace of a dreamless sleep but Ignatz.

And he had company.

None them were as clear as Ignatz and his friends – young men I had killed to ultimately only delay the inevitability of my discovery and the ways to find me by a few weeks. Most of the newcomers were faceless specters in identical armors, their only defining features – if they had any at all – were peculiar decorations and medals and even they were vague.

Much clearer were their smells, everyone utterly steeped in absolute dread and worse. I could still hear the whimpers, their cries of agony and terror, their desperate pleas for a god to save them, and how those were suddenly cut off. Each smell and each voice was unique in their own haunting way. Everyone I had bitten had an individual taste.

I woke up only a few hours later, drenched in sweat and still feeling like an absolute wreck but knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

I didn't want to either way. I could still taste their flesh in my mouth. Something eating my ration of dry bread and jerky couldn't solve either.

Worse, I couldn't help but notice that my body was far too little disgusted by the phantom taste.

The rest of the day wasn't better. After discussing things with a grumpy Toot, we concluded that we were probably tracked thanks to the ridiculously excess amount of magic I exuded showing up on the magic-dar of my lovely stalker even during the day. As such we decided I'd wear the Manacle during the day in hopes to at least avoid traps like the night before.

It took probably more than half an hour of meditating until I found the concentration and determination to move again. My body was tired; I hadn't known before how much joints could ache, my muscle tried to actively murder me not only with pain but also with twitches, cramps and spasms, and I was covered with shallow gashes and a bruises with an untold variety of colors and shapes.

I didn't have to pretend to be a tired wanderer that day as I shambled along the road towards the ever elusive accumulation of magic.

I didn't have to fake gratitude either when a traveling merchant took pity on me and offered a ride to the next town on his cart for the low price of promising to help him defend his wares if we were attacked by bandits.

I probably looked harmless enough the way I shambled, leaning on my staff and hunching forward. It helped that I had detached the Spear of Destiny from my staff, safely storing it in its designated sheath as well as hiding the armor inside of me before committing to the torture that was known as the manacle. The story I told about being a refugee hoping to rebuild my life in the mythical Falconia didn't harm either.

I justified accepting the ride by reminding me that it would be far stranger to decline it and that energy saved during the day would mean better survival chances during the night.

Since both Winter and my subconscious were blissfully quiet and Toot was sleeping I took it their silence as unanimous approval of my reasoning.

It took less than an hour for me to regret that decision. The merchant was a bit too curios and jolly for my liking and the cart was slow. Much slower than I expected. It followed the winding road to a T and had to slow down or even stop to navigate around larger caravans, couriers, and other groups of travelers that regularly clogged up the road.

And after the merchant noticed I wasn't that talkative and wouldn't reveal too much about my past, he stopped talking and the only thing left for the both of us was to stare into the distance.

It left me with my thoughts.

We reached the next village, a collection of houses, farms and a single inn, in the late afternoon. After saying my goodbyes, I was able to slip away relatively unnoticed and unchallenged and was walking again.

The next night was busy and tiring, but nothing compared to the madness of the last two nights. As such we covered a fair distance – much more than during the day – and I even had the time and strength to eat a little before falling to sleep the next morning.

I fell into a rhythm the following days. I woke up around noon, put on the manacle, and lightly jogged along the road, cutting through the fields and forests if I felt that the road was becoming too much of a detour to my destination and parkouring my way over the obstacles. When I came to a hamlet or village I tried to get as much information as I dared without being truly noticed without the blending potion and compared the little I got with the map I had stolen from St. Aurora.

During the night I let Winter loose, covered a fair bit of distance, spilt more than a few drops of monstrous blood, and got to know my personal specters really well as I laid to rest after sunrise.

It was the sixth night after I left the city housing the former inquisitorial headquarters when I stumbled upon the next stronghold.

I didn't want to go after them. I didn't need more on my conscious. But then I forced myself to remember the atrocities of St. Aurora. I knew that it was an Inquisitional post. I knew that this way, I could try and shift the undeserved blame from the city and, hopefully, prevent further suffering.

Even while I was still tormented in my sleep by what I had done in St. Aurora, I cleansed that place. Because I knew that I could life even less with myself if I even risked the chance that a single innocent person would have to endure the atrocities of these monsters in human form just because I was afraid that it would disturb my night's rest.

They hadn't been as bad as the ones in St. Aurora but I had strong suspicions that it was mainly due to a lack of funds and practice than a lack of righteous malice. There were no surviving victims and six more faceless souls joined Ignatz and his ethereal friends.

To make sure that the Inquisition knew it was me, I knew it missed a certain something. A bit of my own ridiculous creativity with masonry.

The repurposed church lacked the souls necessary to fuel the fiery specters of wrath spell but the grounds were particular rich with golems.

There a crater now where the church once stood and its catacombs crumbled as the walls grinded each other into dust under the enormous pressure.

That night was harder as well as the time spent at the stronghold was used well to mass monsters and demons to my locations. I didn't truly mind it.

Toot-Toot was invaluable during the entire trip whether through his antics that managed to temporarily cheer me up enough to break through the tiredness and cycle of guilt and self-doubt and keep moving or his scouting work.

Even when I learned that the news of my exploits had spread across the lands in the second week just before I was about the hit the third nest of the inquisition. Deep down, I knew that a courier that didn't care about pushing his horse to the point of near death and with a supply of fresh mounts could outrun me even if I wasn't shackled by the manacle during the day.

But still, it startled me to experience how fast I heard about my actions from an innkeeper. It was a small comfort that they didn't have a description of me beyond 'tall' and that many of the common folk couldn't believe it to be the actions of a mere human working alone.

It didn't prevent me from ridding this pocket dimension from another blight. This one seemed to have really liked to shackle their victims to a waterwheel and let them taste the river flowing past that particular sorry excuse for a holy house.

They also thought to be smart by executing the innocent souls in their dungeons as soon as they heard the news of St. Aurora and getting rid of the most obvious evidence. It didn't do them much good, even as the remaining seven torturers and part time clergy begged for their lives after killing their four knights.

While I had the map with this location clearly marked as part of the inquisition I wanted to be sure and I made the mistake of actually opening up my Sight only to quickly close it again right after.

With the help of the angry spirits and the Lady of the Deep Water, the river now flows through the ruins of the building.

The last so called church I encountered lay in the steppes filled with herds of roaming sheep and horses. It must have been run by either disciples or admirers of the late Chief Inquisitor Mozgus. Wheels on poles littered the nearby landscape, the wind slowly turning them together with the broken bodies that were woven through them, making the contraptions creak. Crows indicated that it wasn't just a sick hobby of the past even before I could see the fresh body they were in the process of picking clean.

Even from outside the church and over the stench of rotting corpses, I could smell the stench of fear the ten tormenters felt as I howled, the wild sylphs picking up on my fury and joining in. It had probably been the only time I was glad that my reputation proceeded me and that they got at least one thing right.

Again the inquisition had left no survivors, the freshly spoked victim probably being the last one before running out. So I did the same to them.

The windy hills were ripe with sylphs, but try as I might, I couldn't get enough of them to work together to form a tornado. I managed strong gusts of wind but actually forming a tornado seemed to be too structured and boring to these unshackled wind spirits. Without the connection to a greater spirit and lacking enough other elementals to do something big, I couldn't really brute force it either without risking what little safety I during the night.

There were however enough Sylphs around that I could burn the place to the ground with a few choice lighting strikes and making sure the flames had enough oxygen to only leave a charred husk of cracked stone and surrounded by splintered poles.

Sadly, that process did little to pacify the angry spirit writhing in that place. They were too diffuse help power a spell. The lack of power for my spells didn't prevent them from possessing the wheels all over the landscape and neither did that mean that the possessed wheels moved slowly.

Throughout the blur that was that night I mainly remember running and desperately looking for cover while one or more wooden wheels after the other tried to ram me with speeds way over the limits in most cities, clawing at me with boney fingers only partially covered with small rests of rotten soft tissue when they missed the ramming attempt. Those very same fingers tore into the ground when they missed me with enough force that I decided that I didn't want to test my defenses against it.

I aimed to get onto what little higher ground and simple boulders I could find, firing off a few lances of white hot fire to destroy a couple of wheels before the rest found a way around the obstacle or used each other as ramps to launch themselves at me. Then they resumed their assault with relentless abandon and never ending endurance. Even with my frequent attacks, many of which were dodged by the infernal bringers of death, it was only when the light of a new day hit the wheels that my nightmare ended.

Even Toot didn't enjoy that night. For me it didn't help that I couldn't shake the feeling that plenty of the wheel were inhabited by my very own victims the last few weeks. I don't think I was tired enough to hallucinate faint whiffs of smells that had become far too familiar during my sleep.

Then, finally after more than three weeks after leaving Enoch and travelling nearly nonstop, I crested a hill and was rewarded with a sight that even made Toot gasp.

In front of us, in the plains teeming with farms, scattered with small forests and weird, wing-like structures rose an absolutely massive tree in the sky, its legs forming a helix and its branches reaching out towards the horizon. And it was glowing.

I startled to realize that the branch-like constellations I saw in the sky at night weren't constellations or galaxies as I previously assumed and neither could I chalk it up as simply bizarro-world being weird. Not anymore. Not after seeing that.

Now I knew that it had to be the branches of this impossibly gargantuan tree.

My eyes, after finally tearing them from the tree, then drifted further back and I was speechless for the second time in the same amount of minutes.

Falconia stretched out behind the helix tree, not smaller than most modern cities but infinitely more elegant. The entire city was surrounded by a wall that would make the White Walkers gnash their teeth in despair and an enormous building stretched out in the back of the city, not unlike a bird spreading its wings, offering protection to those living inside it.

Back in Enoch we had all assumed that the rumors were mere tales, the result of exaggeration build upon already questionable tales as it traveled around from merchant to innkeeper to traveler and so on. The townsfolk had assured me that they were mere tales country bumpkin told the others when they came home from a visit to Windham. They thought that the wing motives the travelers talked about were simple decorations to honor the Band of the White Hawk for being a driving force in the defeat of the Kushans.

They were completely wrong and the view I was presented with reeked with magic. There was simply absolutely no way that Falconia could have been built by mortal hand, especially not in the time period this pocket dimension appeared to be in. And now that I was close enough to actually see it, I could actually feel it. A pitch black core nestled deep in that amalgamation of otherwise fairly neutral magical energy. Something I could impossibly unfeel now that I was aware of it.

I felt my stomach drop as I wanted to move again and I noticed that Toot was very, very quiet, staring at the center of the winged mega structure with wide eyes.

"I have a bad feeling about this." I reflexively muttered as I made my first true step towards the city after getting some insight of its true nature.

**What could possibly go wrong?**

**Like always, feedback and constructive criticism is highly welcomed and appreciated and does help to write better chapters faster.**

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**There, I post the chapters piecemeal as they are written as well as go in depth in some of the more technical aspects of the story and mechanics.**


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